ReviewACS chemical neuroscience2017
The Rodent Forced Swim Test Measures Stress-Coping Strategy, Not Depression-like Behavior.
Review in ACS chemical neuroscience, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 259 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
259 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- What Animal Models Can Tell Us About Long-Term Psychiatric Symptoms in Sepsis Survivors: a Systematic Review.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2021Pooled it
- Preclinical techniques to investigate exercise training in vascular pathophysiology.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2021Pooled it
- Building on a Solid Foundation: Adding Relevance and Reproducibility to Neurological Modeling Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Recovering from depression with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS): a systematic review and meta-analysis of preclinical studies.Translational psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Paternal cytokine administration alters sperm small ncRNAs and offspring brain and behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Interpreting the S1BF-ACC-LHb pathway in trigeminal neuralgia-associated affective behavior.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Article
- Voluntary wheel running modulates murine gut microbiome during hyperammonemic stress.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Intermittent Fasting Exerts Antidepressant-Like Effects by Restoring HPA Axis Homeostasis Through Coordinated GR-MR Signaling.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2026Article
- Comparative Evaluation of Corticosterone Administration, Chronic Restraint Stress, and Their Combination for Depression-like Behavioral and Molecular Alterations in Mice: A Multi-Domain Assessment.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Characterisation of a touchscreen-based task for assessing cognitive judgement bias in mice: a new translational tool for affective state disorder drug screening.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Adolescent ΔPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- TPH1-dependent maternal hyposerotonemia: long-term effects on adult wild-type mouse offspring.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Non-classical NMDAR subunit GluN3A in a specialized hippocampal region regulates stress-coping strategies in male mice.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Temporal multi-omic exploration of the ventral tegmental area in chronic pain and passive coping behaviors.iScience · 2026Article
- Maternal deprivation and adolescent alcohol exposure induce sex-dependent alterations in stress-related behavior and lipid signaling in rats.Biology of sex differences · 2026Article
- Vascular integrity and immune infiltration in SCI pain: Can exercise tip the balance?Experimental neurology · 2026Article
- Hydroxytyrosol confers resilience against the depressive, anxiogenic and cognition-disruptive effects of chronic stress.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Environmental enrichment as an intervention to prevent behavioral and neurobiological consequences of maternal separation in rodents: a scope review.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Functional remodeling of the parasubthalamic nucleus drives alcohol drinking escalation in dependence.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
199 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The forced swim test (FST) measures coping strategy to an acute inescapable stress and thus provides unique insight into the neural limb of the stress response. Stress, particularly chronic stress, is a contributing factor to depression in humans and depression is associated with altered response to stress. In addition, drugs that are effective antidepressants in humans typically promote active coping strategy in the FST. As a consequence, passive coping in the FST has become loosely equated with depression and is often referred to as "depression-like" behavior. This terminology oversimplifies complex biology and misrepresents both the utility and limitations of the FST. The FST provides little construct- or face-validity to support an interpretation as "depression-like" behavior. While stress coping and the FST are arguably relevant to depression, there are likely many factors that can influence stress coping strategy. Importantly, there are other neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by altered responses to stress and difficulty in adapting to change. One of these is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and several mouse genetic models of ASD exhibit altered stress-coping strategies in the FST. Here we review evidence that argues a more thoughtful consideration of the FST, and more precise terminology, would benefit the study of stress and disorders characterized by altered response to stress, which include but are not limited to depression.
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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.