β-Endorphins are peptides that exert a wide variety of effects throughout the body. Produced
through the cleavage pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), β-endorphins are the primarily agonist …

Adequate sleep is essential for normal brain function, especially during early life
developmental stages as postnatal brain maturation occurs during the critical period of …

Psychiatric disorders are characterized by sex differences in their prevalence,
symptomatology and treatment response. Animal models have been widely employed for …

Circadian rhythm disturbances are a common symptom among individuals with mood
disorders. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), in the ventral part of the anterior …

This paper presents the history of research and the results of recent studies on the effects of
sleep deprivation in animals and humans. Humans can bear several days of continuous …

Prevalence of mental disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar
disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ) are increasing at alarming rates in our societies …

Background: Going without sleep for long periods of time can produce a range of
experiences, including perceptual distortions and hallucinations. Many questions, however …

Approximately one half-century ago several classes of medications, discovered by
serendipity, were introduced for the treatment of depression and bipolar disorder. These …

Rodents emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) to communicate the presence of positive or
negative emotional states and to coordinate social interactions. On this basis, USVs are …

According to the recently proposed vigilance model of affective disorders (vigilance in the
sense of “brain arousal”), manic behaviour is partly interpreted as an autoregulatory attempt …