Behavioral Despair

Synonyms

Forced swimming test; Porsolt test; Tail suspension test

Definition

Tests of behavioral despair are used to measure the effects of exposure to stress or antidepressant drugs on the behavior of laboratory animals (typically rats or mice). Examples of these tests include the forced swimming test (a.k.a., the FST or Porsolt test) and the tail suspension test (TST).

When forced to swim in a restricted space without the possibility of escape, rats and mice will eventually adopt a characteristic immobile posture, where they remain passively floating in the water making only those movements necessary to keep their heads above water. The immobility response is usually measured by the latency until the development of immobility or the total duration of immobility during the session. The immobility in the FST may indicate resignation to a state of despair (Porsolt et al. 1977, 1978a) or passive coping to inescapable stress (Cryan et al. 2005b). The latency to immobility is increased...