The data reported here suggest that repeated stress has different effects on rat behaviorwhen different tasks are considered.
The behavioral studies revealed evidence of impairment that was dependent on the task and on the type of chronic stress used, since handling, that can be considered stressful for the animals, also affected performance in the open field task. In the inhibitory avoidance task, there was no significant increase in the latency to step-down, which is not due to an action on motor activity, because this repeated stress did not modify ambulation in a novel environment. The performance in the two-way active avoidance task was affected only in the repeatedly restrained animals, while in the open field task performance was