The Tail Suspension Test is a mouse behavioral assay in which an animal is suspended by the tail in an inescapable position, causing alternating escape-directed activity and immobility; the main readout is immobility time, and antidepressant-like treatments generally reduce immobility compared with vehicle controls. The assay detects behavioral response to acute inescapable stress rather than a molecular event; immobility is interpreted as passive stress-coping behavior, while reduced immobility is used as a predictive screen for antidepressant-like activity, with important limitations related to strain, locomotor activity, and tail-climbing behavior.
Tail Suspension Test (TST)
The Tail Suspension Test (TST) is a test commonly used to evaluate antidepressant effects in mice or rats. In the experiment, the animals were suspended from a high place with their tails in the air. The helplessness displayed by the animal in order to escape was used as a measure of the antidepressant effect, i.e., the animal's reduced movement. Antidepressants often reduce this feeling of helplessness. TST is often used for drug screening and studying the neurobiological mechanisms of antidepressant drugs, but its limitations in behavioral models should also be noted.
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