Social Stress in Female Sprague-Dawley Rats: Open Field

Social stress has been shown to affect development of certain psychological disorders, especially depression. For the purpose of the etiology of depression, experimenters attempt to use non-human animals to encounter behavioral changes in open field cage experiments. Using this behavioral technique in female Sprague-Dawley rats, researchers are able to show behavioral alterations that support the idea that females experience chronic stress, via depression from social stress.