I don’t even know how to swim

We really need a different animal model for depression. A mouse can’t tell the difference between an anti-depressant drug and water because there is no immediate effect. What they do to test for anti-depressant activity is they chronically dose the mouse with the drug for a month or so. Then they put it in the water and see how long it can swim for before it gives up and accepts it’s demise. I’m not sure what standard protocol is and if there are life saving measures for the mouse but with the humanity of the situation put aside, it is a stupid test. First of all, I can’t even swim. I can hop in the river or a pool and make it safely to the edge but if I was forced to tread water, I wouldn’t make it past the first minute of two. By the current standard test I would be considered depressed. There are more reasons than just my inability to swim that makes this test unconvincing to me but I’ll cut it short and say, I just don’t buy it.

While looking for a more reasonable test I came across a dissertation that used an alternative where they shocked the mouse over and over. After a week or two they created an avenue for it to escape from the shock torture chamber. What they found was the ‘depressed’ mice didn’t try to escape and just endured the shock. Maybe they didn’t know this escape route was available, I only got to read the first 24 pages and am waiting on a loan request for the full dissertation but, can’t we do better? I mean I can tell when my dog is sad and I can do things that cheer her up. Can’t we give the mouse something that it enjoys and then take it away? Like a cool mouse wheel or something. And then, I don’t know see how long it takes for it to get sad? My dog makes it about 6 days before she noticeably misses her doggy friends. Okay back to my thesis which is comming along nicely.