A primer on sex differences in the behavioral response to stress

There is a growing interest, along with new technology, to perform translational research into the biology underlying many mental disorders and examining these effects in both sexes. Many studies use behavioral manipulations or endpoints to model these disorders in animals. However, some of these paradigms produce sex-skewed results that could influence and confound results. This review explores the behavioral literature on acute and chronic stress paradigms and their effects on behavior in males and females. We provide a guideline of which tests and behaviors are biased towards one sex or the other as tool to use in the design of stress-based experiments incorporating both sexes.