Opinion: End the ‘forced swim test’ on mice for antidepressant research
In 2022, more than 22 million Americans had serious thoughts of suicide or had made a plan to end their life. To treat depression, the leading cause of suicide death, there is an urgent need for novel antidepressants, as existing ones are only effective roughly 50% of the time. But there is a serious problem with the way we conduct research to improve depression treatment. An upcoming advisory council meeting might offer an opportunity to finally change it.
When I started my psychiatry training in 1996, I read a lot about the forced swim test (FST) as a model for depression. Developed in 1977 and purported to produce depression in mice, the procedure requires that a mouse be placed in a small tank filled with water from which escape is impossible. The mouse initially struggles to escape, but as exhaustion sets in, it proceeds to immobile floating, which is presumed to represent a depressive state.
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