Evidence for and against adolescent vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is mounting, but this evidence is largely qualitative, retrospective, or complicated by variation in prior stress exposure and trauma context. Here, we examine the effects of development on trauma vulnerability using adult post-natal (PN) day 61, early adolescent (PN23) and mid adolescence (PN34) rats and two types of trauma: an established animal model of PTSD, single prolonged stress (SPS), and a novel composite model—SPS predation (SPSp) version. We demonstrate that early and mid adolescent rats are capable of fear conditioning and fear extinction, as well as extinction retention. Our results also demonstrate that both types of trauma induced a deficit in the retention of fear extinction in adulthood, a hallmark of PTSD, but not after early or mid adolescence trauma, suggesting that adolescence might convey resilience to SPS and SPSp traumas. Across all three life stages, the effects of SPS exposure and a novel predation trauma model, SPSp, had similar effects on behavior suggesting that trauma type did not affect the likelihood of developing PTSD-like symptoms, and that SPSp is a predation-based trauma model worth exploring.

The COVID-19 pandemic is unparalleled in recent history when accounting for the true disease burden and dramatic impact on physical and mental health. Due to its infectious pathology, COVID-19 presents with a variety of symptoms including neuropsychiatric complications. Moreover, factors such as quarantine, social isolation, and fear of illness have negatively impacted the health of non-COVID-19 patients. There has been significant literature reporting new-onset psychiatric illness in all global populations including those without history of psychiatric illness. This report discusses an adolescent male without prior psychiatric history presenting with new onset symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder and psychosis in the context of COVID-19. There are considerable reports describing new-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder, albeit conflicting in terms of prevalence and exacerbations in the setting of COVID-19 in both adult and adolescent populations but limited reports of new-onset psychosis in those same populations and setting.

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