Validity Assessment of 5 Day Repeated Forced-Swim Stress to Model Human Depression in Young-Adult C57BL/6J and BALB/cJ Mice

The development of animal models with construct, face, and predictive validity to accurately model human depression has been a major challenge. One proposed rodent model is the 5 d repeated forced swim stress (5d-RFSS) paradigm, which progressively increases floating during individual swim sessions. The onset and persistence of this floating behavior has been anthropomorphically characterized as a measure of depression. This interpretation has...