Prenatal stress is associated with depression-related electroencephalographic sleep changes in adult male rats: A preliminary report

1. Prenatal stress in rats has been shown to produce long-term behavioral, neuroendocrine and neurochemical changes. These changes may model aspects o f human depressive illness. 2. in this pilot investigation, adult male offspring exposed to stress in u tero and nonstressed controls were studied using 24-hour electroencephalogr aphic sleep recordings. 3. Prenatally stressed animals demonstrated reduced latency to the onset of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, prolongation of the first REM episode, and diminished slow-wave sleep. 4. Although preliminary, the observed changes parallel those seen in studie s of human depression. These data further support the face validity of the prenatal stress model as a potential tool for future studies on the pathoph ysiology of depressive disorder.