“…Nociceptive stimulation elicits a plethora of neuroendocrine responses including arginine vasopressin (AVP) release (Kendler et al, 1978;Onaka et al, 1986Onaka et al, , 1996Onaka and Yagi, 1988) and activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (Aloisi et al, 1995(Aloisi et al, , 1996Pacák et al, 1995;Culman et al, 1997;Persoons et al, 1997;Taylor et al, 1998). The formalin test for nociception is commonly used in rats and mice to assess the response of an animal to moderate, continuous pain (Abbott et al, 1982a), and this model is thought to resemble clinical pain (Dubuisson and Dennis, 1977;Dennis and Melzack, 1980;Abbott et al, 1982a,b).…”