Cacioppo, Capitanio, & Cacioppo, 2014; Nelson & Pinna, 2011; Pinna, 2010); and iv) contextual fear conditioning and aggression can be regulated with ALLO (Nelson & Pinna, 2011)
For instance, research in which a social animal (e.g., prairie voles, titi monkeys) is chronically housed either with a preferred partner or alone has shown that isolation has deleterious neurological (see review by S. Cacioppo, Capitanio, & Cacioppo, 2014) and neuroendocrinological effects (see review by J. T. Cacioppo, Cacioppo, Capitanio, & Cole, 2015). Interestingly, animal research showed that the behavioral effects of social isolation could be improved with pharmacological help. For instance, pharmacological help includes administration of: 1) antidepressants of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) class that have a broad range of effects including (but not restricted to) improving anxiety-like behavior and fear responses (fluoxetine; Pinna, 2010); 2) neurosteroids (such as allopregnanolone, ALLO) that activate the hypothalamic pituitary adrenocortical (HPA) axis, thereby facilitate the recovery of physiological homeostasis following stressful stimuli (e.g., Evans, Sun, McGregor, & Connor, 2012; cf. S. Cacioppo, Capitanio, & Cacioppo, 2014); or 3) oxytocin, a neuropeptide.
For patients who decline psychological interventions (such as CBT), SSRIs show consistent evidence of improvement
For instance, fluoxetine, an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) class, has a broad range of effects including (but not restricted to) improving the behavioral effects of social isolation, anxiety-like behavior and fear responses (Pinna, 2010; ).