Social buffering during fear extinction rescues long-term trauma-induced memory and emotional behavioral alterations in rats.

ABSTRACT: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disease that may develop after experiencing a traumatic event and it is characterized by resistance to extinction of the traumatic memory. Psychotherapy, which mainly focuses on favoring fear memory extinction, represents the first-line treatment for PTSD. However, this approach is not always successful. Emerging evidence suggests the importance of a social support in alleviating PTSD symptomatology; however, the efficacy of group therapy for PTSD remains controversial. Here, we evaluated the impact of social support on the efficacy of fear extinction sessions in a chronic PTSD-like rat model. We tested the hypothesis that the presence of a social partner during temporally spaced extinction sessions (to mimic the presence of a social s

SUBMITTER: Blasi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11845759 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature