Title: swimming test
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - swimming test
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.12106
Status: current

Definition
Procedure in which a test animal (rodent) is forced to swim to avoid drowning.

Notes
1) Most often used to test antidepressants, which increase the time the animal spends in escape-directed swimming behavior.
2) Interpretation is controversial, as cessation of swimming could be a learned response to hasten removal by the investigator.

Related Terms
- antidepressants: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/11592
- tail suspension test: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/12120

Source
- PAC, 2015, 87, 841. 'IUPAC Glossary of terms used in neurotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 908 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0103)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12106/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12106/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12106/xml

Citation: Citation: 'swimming test' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.12106
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-07-28T13:51:10+00:00