title: A selective test for antidepressant treatments using rats bred for stress-induced reduction of motor activity in the swim test.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper describes a new procedure for detecting effective antidepressant treatments. The procedure uses the swim-test susceptible (Susceptible) rat which has been selectively bred to show decreased struggling behavior in a swim test after exposure to a mild stressor. The ability of treatments to block this decrease in swim-test activity was assessed as a method for detecting effective antidepressants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both male and female Susceptible rats, chronic (14-day) treatment with different antidepressant drugs delivered via osmotic minipump [i.e., three tricyclics (desmethylimipramine, imipramine, amitriptyline), two selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (fluoxetine and sertraline), a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (phenelzine), and two atypical antidepressants (venlafaxine and bupropion)] all prevented the stress-induced decrease in swim-test struggling normally shown by these rats. Electroconvulsive shock had a similar effect. Unlike antidepressant drugs, 14-day treatment with various non-antidepressant drugs [i.e., a stimulant (amphetamine), an anxiolytic (chlordiazepoxide), an antihistamine (chlorpheniramine), and an anticholinergic (scopolamine)] did not have this effect. Antidepressant drug treatment for 1 day (i.e., acute treatment) was also ineffective in this test. The procedure described above requires use of the Susceptible rat--swim test resistant rats (i.e., rats selectively bred to be resistant to decreased swim-test activity after exposure to stressful conditions) showed no significant differences in swim-test behavior between stress and nonstress conditions after 14-day drug treatment, and randomly bred Sprague-Dawley rats did not show a decrease in swim-test activity following exposure to the mild stressor that is the basis for the test.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that the procedure described here, which uses a rat subject that has been bred for vulnerability to stressful conditions, may be a selective screening technique for effective antidepressant treatments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
authors.forename: Charles Hutchison Keesor
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: West
authors.forename: Jay Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D004597:Electroshock; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000187:drug effects*; D005239:Fear / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D013550:Swimming
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents