2.3. Chronic water avoidance stress protocol

After collection of baseline voiding parameters (see below), all of the animals were exposed to chronic WAS as previously described [6, 7, 14]. Briefly, the rat was placed on a standing cube (5.7 × 5.7 × 10.7 cm³) in the middle of a Plexiglas cage (25 × 50 × 25 cm³). The container was filled with room temperature water 1 cm below the top of the cube. The rat was placed atop of the cube for 1 h every day for 10 consecutive days. The protocol was performed between the hours of 8:00a.m. and 12:00 p.m. to minimize circadian effects.