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Updated: Oct 3, 2026

The Forced Swim Test as a Model of Depressive-like Behavior
Published on: March 2, 2015
[Expression of stress-evoked analgesia, connected with activity of animals in a forced swimming test]
O G Kenunen1, I V Prakh'e, V L Kozlovskié
1Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute, St.-Petersburg.
Abstract:
The influence of forced swimming on the development of stress-induced analgesia was studied in 35 SHR mice, 65 NMRI mice, and 23 white outbred male rats. Mice were subjected to swimming conditions (at a temperature of 11 degrees C) for a period of 4 minutes and rats for 6 minutes. Pain thresholds were measured by a footshock. It was shown that behavioral response to acute stress is associated with a change in the pain tolerance threshold: activity of an animal under test conditions positively correlated with stress-induced analgesia. The response to stress and parameters of stress-induced analgesia depend on the genetic factor and age, however, the correlation between the activity during exposure to stress and the extent of stress-induced analgesia conserves in all cases.

