Figure 5.

Effects of intraseptal administration of the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone (20 or 100 ng/side; black arrow) on neuroendocrine and behavioral stress response. Administration of mifepristone had no effect on either basal or stress-induced increase of plasma ACTH (a) or corticosterone (CORT, b) levels because there was no significant difference between mifepristone-treated animals and controls. (c) Mifepristone-injected animals showed an increased active coping style indicated by an enhancement of struggling and swimming and a reduction of floating behavior during the forced swim exposure. Data are expressed as means+SEM. ^**p<0.01 vs basal values; ⁺⁺p<0.001 vs vehicle-treated controls (Newman–Keuls post hoc test or Student's t-test).