Elevated anxiety and depressive-like behavior in a rat model of genetic generalized epilepsy suggesting common causation

Abstract

The explanation for the increased prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders in epilepsy patients is uncertain, with both biological and psychosocial factors proposed. Increasing evidence supports the idea of shared neurobiological processes leading both to seizures and to behavioral, emotional and cognitive disturbance. This study addresses this using Genetic Absence Epilepsy Rats from Strasbourg (GAERS), a model of human generalized epilepsy. We subjected GAERS (n = 47) and Non-Epileptic Control rats (NEC; n = 73) to behavioral measures of depression and anxiety at 7 and 13 weeks of age, ages prior to and after seizure onset. We employed the Sucrose-Preference Test (SPT), the Elevated Plus M..