The forced swim test (FST), originally developed by Porsolt et al., is highly valuable for assessing the antidepressant-like effects of the majority of currently-available antidepressants. Lucki et al. modified some parameters of the traditional FST in order to facilitate the differentiation between serotonergic and noradrenergic classes of antidepressant drugs. In addition, the FST is one of t...

We studied the influence of imipramine on the duration of immobility in chronic forced-swim-stressed rats. Both single and chronic administration of imipramine potently shortened immobility in naive rats during forced-swim testing. However, chronic, 14-day forced-swim stress testing blocked the immobility-decreasing effect induced by a single administration of imipramine. When imipramine was ad...

A recent study conducted a factor analysis on 18 behavioural measures obtained from four alcohol-preferring and five alcohol-non-preferring rat lines/strains. It was concluded that variables such as saccharin intake, ultrasonic vocalizations following an air puff, and defaecation in an open field were associated with voluntary and forced alcohol consumption. In contrast, measures such as time i...

BACKGROUND Catha edulis Forsk. (Khat) is traditionally used for treating various disorders. Nevertheless there are no reports of any scientific assessment of its psychopharmacological properties. OBJECTIVE Therefore, the current study was designed to evaluate the antidepressant-like activity of Khat ethanolic extract using established animal models of depression and stress. MATERIALS AND ME...

Background Diagnosing Airway hyper-responsiveness (AHR) requires bronchial provocation tests that are performed at rest and after exercise or hyperventilation in either a lab or field setting. Presently, it is unclear whether the proposed AHR field test for swimming induces sufficient provocation due to lack of intensity. Thus we aimed to examine how the 8 minute field swim test compared to all...

Abstract The forced swim test ( FST ) is a controversial rodent that has been used for decades, mainly in depression studies. severity of the procedure makes it ethically questionable and its validity also questioned. In this paper we contribute new data to debate. We identified original research papers related Major Depressive Disorder MDD ), using rats as models. compared citations received b...