The prevalence, severity and chronicity of anxiety disorders is significantly higher in women compared to men. Exposure therapy, the gold-standard treatment for anxiety disorders, can be modelled in the laboratory through Pavlovian fear extinction. Understanding the factors that influence fear extinction in females may aid in optimising the treatment of anxiety disorders in this population. The aim of the current study was therefore to explore the hormonal, reproductive and behavioural predictors of fear extinction recall in female rats by analysing data from nine published experiments that examined fear extinction in female rats. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that estrous cycle effects on extinction recall may be modulated by reproductive status. While the estrous phase in which nulliparous (virgin) rats undergo extinction training was predictive of extinction recall, no relationship between estrous phase and extinction recall was found among primiparous (one prior reproductive experience) rats. Moreover, estrous cycle predicted the relationship between early extinction and extinction recall in nulliparous rats, but not primiparous rats. Although reproductive status did not predict extinction recall, primiparous rats exhibited poor extinction recall relative to nulliparous rats extinguished during proestrus, and better extinction recall than nulliparous rats extinguished during metestrus. A faster rate of extinction, and lower fear responses at the end of extinction training were predictive of lower levels of CS-elicited fear during extinction recall in both nulliparous and primiparous female rats, while the length of extinction training was not predictive of extinction recall. The potential theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

中文翻译：

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雌性大鼠恐惧消退的激素，生殖和行为预测因子。

与男性相比，女性焦虑症的患病率，严重性和慢性性明显更高。暴露疗法是焦虑症的金标准疗法，可以通过巴甫洛夫式的恐惧消灭在实验室中进行建模。了解影响女性恐惧消退的因素可能有助于优化该人群的焦虑症治疗。因此，本研究的目的是通过分析九项已发表的检查雌性大鼠恐惧消退实验的数据，探索雌性大鼠恐惧消退回忆的激素，生殖和行为预测因子。分层多元回归分析表明，动荡周期对绝种召回的影响可能受生殖状况的调节。虽然未产（原始）大鼠经历灭绝训练的发情期是灭绝记忆的预测，但在初生（有过一次生殖经验）大鼠中，未发现发情阶段和灭绝记忆之间的关系。此外，发情周期预测了未产大鼠的早期灭绝与灭绝回想之间的关系，而未见初产大鼠。尽管生殖状态不能预测灭绝回想，但相对于在发情期灭绝的未产鼠，初生大鼠表现出较差的灭绝回想，并且比在发情期灭绝的未产鼠更好的灭绝回想。更快的灭绝速度 灭绝训练结束时的较低恐惧反应和较低的恐惧反应可预测雌雄大鼠和绝经雌性老鼠在灭绝回忆中CS引起的恐惧水平较低，而灭绝训练的时间不能预测灭绝回忆。讨论了这些发现的潜在的理论和临床意义。