Effects of Isolation Stress on Peripheral Leucocytes of Female Albino Mice

Abstract

ZISKIND¹ has reported paranoid psychoses, mental abnormalities, anxiety states and depressions in humans due to prolonged solitary confinement or isolation stress. Zuckerman et al.¹ have similarly demonstrated the stressful effects of acute, short-term periods (3 h) of total and partial perceptual isolation in man. Little has been done to define the endocrinological consequences of isolation stress. Few investigators have recognized the possibilities of the use of isolation to produce abnormalities of behaviour or emotion in laboratory animals. Scott and Marston² and Keller and Umbreit³ have found that solitary confinement produced a rapid, violent, head-shaking response in mice when an area at the back of the head was touched lightly with apointed object. Other investigators^4,5 have also reported aggressive behaviour and ferocity in isolated mice. Barnes⁶ has used the inhibition of head-twitching and convulsive responses caused by isolation to evaluate the tranquillizing, sedative and anti-epileptic effects of various drugs.