Depression is a common psychiatric disorder or a mental state or chronic mental disorder characterized by feelings of sadness, loneliness, despair, low self-esteem, and self-reproach; accompanying signs include psychomotor retardation (or less frequently agitation), withdrawal from social contact, and vegetative states such as loss of appetite and insomnia. This disorder is with diverse symptoms and high comorbidity with other brain dysfunctions. Due to this complexity, little is known about the neural and genetic mechanisms involved in depression pathogenesis. Clinical and preclinical trials suggest a disturbance in central nervous system (CNS) serotonin (5-HT) activity as an important factor. Other neurotransmitters implicated include norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA). In a large proportion of patients, current antidepressant treatments are often ineffective and/or have undesirable side effects, fueling the search for more effective drugs. Some drugs used in depression are fluoxetine, amitriptyline, doxepin, impiramine. Animal models mimicking various symptoms of depression are indispensable in studying the biological mechanisms of this disease. In In vivo method, behavior despair model are forced swim test, tail suspension test, Learned Helplessness in Rats, Muricide behavior in rats, Chronic stress model of depression, etc. In in vitro methods, models are inhibition of 3[H]-norepinephrine uptake in rat brain synaptosomes, antagonism of p-chloramphetamine toxicity by inhibitors of serotonin uptake, etc. So, we summarize several popular methods like in vitro & in vivo for assessing depression-like symptoms in mice and their utility in screening antidepressant drugs.
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