ArticleJournal of visualized experiments : JoVE2015
The forced swim test as a model of depressive-like behavior.
Article in Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 390 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
390 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Voluntary wheel-running exercise improvement of anxiety or depressive symptoms in different models of depression.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- The 5-HT7 receptor system as a treatment target for mood and anxiety disorders: A systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2023Pooled it
- "The wrong tools for the right job": a critical meta-analysis of traditional tests to assess behavioural impacts of maternal separation.Psychopharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Immune-related biomarkers for major depressive disorder identified via integrated bioinformatics and machine learning.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Review
- Sex and stress paradigm influence behavioural, neuroimmune, and microbiome responses in pubertal CD-1 mice.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- MSK1 mediates BDNF-dependent MeCP2-S421 phosphorylation in postnatal striatal development and psychiatric-relevant behaviours.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Left Cerebellar-Right Frontal Uncoupling in Female First-Episode Major Depressive Disorder: Synaptic Evidence From [CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- Rapid rescue of despair behaviors by sonogenetic neuromodulation of the mPFC-DRN pathway.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Continuous OFT-Based Behavioral Phenotyping Reveals Neural Stem Cell-Associated Shifts in Depression-like Mice.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Pharmacological Assessment ofFood science & nutrition · 2026Article
- Severity-dependent changes in hippocampal necroptosis markers and neuronal loss in a PTSD-like mouse model: potential involvement of nitric oxide signaling.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Multimodal Behavior Scoring Quantifies Depression-like Severity Across Chronic Stress Models and Identifies Stress-Resilient Mice.NeuroSci · 2026Article
- Article
- Microglial SIRT6 confers protection against neuroinflammation-associated depression through NRF2-HO1 signaling.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Repurposing lurasidone to alleviate doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity and neurotoxicity via BDNF/TrkB/PI3K/Akt/CREB and miR-34a-5p/PGC-1α pathways.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Article
- Lanzhou Lily (Food science & nutrition · 2026Article
- Hydroxytyrosol confers resilience against the depressive, anxiogenic and cognition-disruptive effects of chronic stress.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- PSMB4/MHC-I Signaling in the Cerebrospinal Fluid-Contacting Nucleus Mediates Neuroinflammatory Depression in Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Ginsenosides in the management of depression: a comprehensive pharmacological review.Chinese medicine · 2026Review
- Chronic stress drives oligoasthenozoospermia via gut microbiota-vitamin-Sting1/Slc9c2 axis.Nature communications · 2026Article
330 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The goal of the present protocol is to describe the forced swim test (FST), which is one of the most commonly used assays for the study of depressive-like behavior in rodents. The FST is based on the assumption that when placing an animal in a container filled with water, it will first make efforts to escape but eventually will exhibit immobility that may be considered to reflect a measure of behavioral despair. This test has been extensively used because it involves the exposure of the animals to stress, which was shown to have a role in the tendency for major depression. Additionally, the FST has been shown to share some of the factors that are influenced or altered by depression in humans, including changes in food consumption, sleep abnormalities and drug-withdrawal-induced anhedonia. The main advantages of this procedure are that it is relatively easy to perform and that its results are easily and quickly analyzed. Moreover, its sensitivity to a broad range of antidepressant drugs that makes it a suitable screening test is one of the most important features leading to its high predictive validity. Despite its appeal, this model has a number of disadvantages. First, the issue of chronic augmentation is problematic in this test because in real life patients need to be treated for at least several weeks before they experience any relief from their symptoms. Last, due to the aversiveness of the FST, it is important to take into account possible influences it might have on brain structure/function if brain analyses are to be carried out following this procedure.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.