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The Forced Swim Test as a Model of Depressive-like Behavior
Published on: March 2, 2015
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A missing link between depression models: Forced swimming test, helplessness and passive coping in genetically
Andrea Ráez1, Ignasi Oliveras1, Cristóbal Río-Álamos2
1Medical Psychology Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Institute of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
Behavioural Processes
|May 27, 2020
Summary
This study links rodent behaviors in two depression models. Active coping in the forced swimming test predicts less helplessness in an escape task, validating these depression models.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience and Behavioral Science
- Animal Models of Depression
Background:
- The forced swimming test (FST) and two-way active escape/avoidance tasks are common rodent models for studying depressive-like symptoms.
- These tests involve stressful situations believed to mimic aspects of human depression, but direct associations between behaviors in these distinct models remain under-investigated.
- Lack of experimental evidence hinders the full understanding of the concurrent validity of these widely used depression models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between behavioral responses in the FST and a two-way active escape task (fixed ratio 2 - FR2) in outbred rats.
- To determine if coping styles observed in one depression model predict behaviors in another, using National Institutes of Health genetically heterogeneous rats (NIH-HS).
Main Methods:
- Ninety-seven NIH-HS rats were subjected to both the FST and the FR2 two-way active escape task.
- Behavioral responses, including struggling and immobility in the FST, and response failures in the FR2 task, were recorded and analyzed.
- Statistical analyses compared subgroups of rats exhibiting high or low responses in each respective task.
Main Results:
- Significant associations were found between behavioral responses in the FST and the FR2 helplessness task.
- Higher struggling or less immobility during the FST predicted fewer response failures in the FR2 task.
- Conversely, rats with fewer response failures in the FR2 task exhibited increased struggling in the FST, demonstrating predictive relationships between the models.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first experimental evidence that passive coping responses in one rodent depression model predict similar coping styles in another.
- The findings support the concurrent validity of the FST and the two-way active escape task as complementary models for studying depression.
- These results enhance the understanding of behavioral parallels between rodent depression models and human depressive disorders.
