[Unpredictable chronic mild stress effects on antidepressants activities in forced swim test]

The experiments has been designed to study unpredictable chronic mild stress effect on anti-depressive activities of amitriptyline (10 mg/kg) and fluoxetine (20 mg/kg) in forced swim test in male outbred mice. It is shown that acute treatment with fluoxetine does not produce any antidepressant effects in mice following stress of 14 days while the sub-chronic injections of fluoxetine result in more deep depressive-like behavior. In 28 daily stressed mice, antidepressant effect of fluoxetine is observed independently of the injection rates. Amitriptyline demonstrates the antidepressant activity regardless of the duration of stress or administration scheduling, but at the same time the severity of anti-immobilization effect of amitriptyline in stressed mice is weaker in compare to non-stressed trails. Thus, the injection rates and duration of unpredictable mild chronic stress are the parameters that determine the efficiency of antidepressants in the mouse forced swimming test.