*2.3. Animals and Treatment*

Male C57BL/6J mice weighing 18–22 g were obtained from the laboratory animal center of Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) and were housed in cages with free access to food and water in a room with an ambient temperature of 22 ± 2 ◦C and a 12 h light/dark cycle. All animal experiments were conducted according to the relevant guidelines and regulations and with the approval of the Institutional Ethical Committee of China.

After an adaptive phase of 3 days, the mice were randomly divided into the control, CORT, and PAPZ+CORT group (*n* = 10/group). The dose of CORT (40 mg/kg) was selected based on data from the literature [28,29] and PAPZ (1000 mg/kg) treatment was calculated by extrapolating the human recommended daily dosage of the single herb according to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. For the control group and CORT group, normal saline was administrated to mice by oral gavage first, and 30 min later, the mice were subcutaneously injected with saline or CORT. For the PAPZ+CORT group, the mice were administrated with PAPZ by oral gavage 30 min prior to CORT supplement. All drugs were administrated at a volume of 10 mL/kg. During behavioral assessments, the administration of all drugs continued.
