A rodent model of traumatic stress induces lasting sleep and quantitative electroencephalographic disturbances

Hyperarousal and sleep disturbances are common, debilitating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD patients also exhibit abnormalities in quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) power spectra during wake as well as rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the first-line pharmacological treatment for PTSD, provide modest remediation of the hyperarousal symptoms in PTSD patients, but have little to no effect on the sleep-wake architecture deficits. Development of novel therapeutics for these sleep-wake architecture deficits is limited by a lack of relevant animal models. Thus, the present study investigated whether single prolonged stress (SPS), a rodent model of traumatic stress, induces PTSD-like sleep-wake and qEEG spectral power abnormalities that correlate with changes in central serotonin (5-HT) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) signaling in rats. Rats were implanted with telemetric recording devices to continuously measure EEG before and after SPS treatment. A second cohort of rats was used to measure SPS-induced changes in plasma corticosterone, 5-HT utilization, and NPY expression in brain regions that comprise the neural fear circuitry. SPS caused sustained dysregulation of NREM and REM sleep, accompanied by state-dependent alterations in qEEG power spectra indicative of cortical hyperarousal. These changes corresponded with acute induction of the corticosterone receptor co-chaperone FK506-binding protein 51 and delayed reductions in 5-HT utilization and NPY expression in the amygdala. SPS represents a preclinical model of PTSD-related sleep-wake and qEEG disturbances with underlying alterations in neurotransmitter systems known to modulate both sleep-wake architecture and the neural fear circuitry.