Changes in coping strategy with age

Coping is a strategic approach about how to deal with stressful situations. Those who use proactive coping strategies have a tendency to accept changes and act before changes are expected. In contrast, reactive coping is more inflexible, preservative and more likely act in response to changes. There are a variety of explanations for why people become conservatively as they age, but changes in the coping style may also be relevant. However, there is not much research on coping style changes with age. Therefore, this study investigated the changes in coping behaviors at 2, 12, and 23 months old mice with its underlying hormonal and biochemical characteristics. Behavioral measurements in the active avoidance test and shock prod test have shown an age-related increase in reactive style of coping. Also, aged mice showed a tendency of inflexible or even did not attempt to cope in forced swim, fear conditioning and active avoidance test. The circadian and peak concentration of serum corticosterone in resting state was higher. However, the increase in stress hormone was less in response to stress. In this regard, the expression level of GR was lower in the hippocampus in aged animals. According to these results, aging is related with 1) the rate of selecting a reactive coping strategy increases, 2) stress reactivity decreases 3) which are associated with the change in glucocorticoid receptor numbers in critical brain circuits. These age-related strategic changes may explain why the elderly becomes more conservative.