page_title: Animal models of depression
section_title: Despair-based
hierarchical_section_title: Animal models of depression / Antidepressant screening tests / Despair-based
caption_attribution_description: English: Mice tail suspension test (TST)
context_page_description: Animal models of depression are research tools used to investigate depression and action of antidepressants as a simulation to investigate the symptomatology and pathophysiology of depressive illness or used to screen novel antidepressants.
context_section_description: Forced-swimming test: The forced-swimming test (FST) is based on the observation that animals develop an immobile posture in an inescapable cylinder filled with water. In this test, immobility is interpreted as a passive stress-coping strategy or depression-like behavior (behavioral despair). After antidepressant administration, the animals will actively perform escape-directed behaviors with longer duration than animals with control saline treatment. FST is the most widely used tool in depression research, more specifically as a screen for acute antidepressants.
  The advantages of FST are that it is low-costing and is a fast and reliable tool, easy to handle and has proven its reliability across laboratories, for testing potential antidepressants activities with a strong predictive validity. Besides, it allows rapid screening of large numbers of drugs. The major disadvantages of FST are that it has poor face and construct validities. The test is sensitive to acute treatment only, and its validity for non-monoamine antidepressants is uncertain
  Tail suspension test: The TST, also known as tail suspension test, shares a common theoretical basis and behavioral measure with the FST. In the TST, mice are suspended by their tails using adhesive tape to a horizontal bar for a certain couple of minutes, and the time of immobility is recorded. Typically, the suspended rodents perform immediately escape-like behaviors, followed by developing an immobile posture. If antidepressants are given prior to the test, the subjects will be engaged in escape-directed behaviors for longer periods of time than after saline treatment, exhibiting a decrease in duration of immobility.
  A major advantage of the TST is that it is simple and inexpensive. A major disadvantage of the TST is that it is restricted to mice and limited to strains that do not tend to climb their tail. Besides, like FST, TST is sensitive to acute treatment only, and its validity for non-monoamine antidepressants is uncertain.
caption: Tail suspension test
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