Animals Are Not Ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment or abuse in any other way.

PETA Australia
  • Action Centre
  • Campaigns
  • Living
  • News
  • About
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
  • Action Centre
  • Campaigns
  • Living
  • News
  • About
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
PETA Australia
  • EMAIL SIGN-UP
  • DONATE NOW
    • VANGUARD SOCIETY
    • PETA PRESENTS
    • SUPPORT OUR WORK
    • MEMBERSHIP SERVICES
    • GIFTS IN WILLS
PETA Search Icon
forced swim test

Scientific Paper Pokes Holes in Flimsy Pharma Defence of Forced Swim Test

News / Scientific Paper Pokes Holes in Flimsy Pharma Defence of Forced Swim Test
20 August 2021

Last week, PETA US neuroscientist Dr Emily Trunnell, along with psychologist Dr Constança Carvalho, published a paper in the esteemed journal Drug Discovery Today. The paper – which examined the use of the cruel “forced swim test” by the 15 most profitable pharmaceutical companies in the world – shows that this decades-old, unscientific experiment on animals was not useful in determining whether a test substance would be effective in treating human depression.
Image shows the forced swim test

What Is the Forced Swim Test?

In the forced swim test, experimenters put mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, or gerbils in inescapable containers filled with water. The panicked animals try to climb up the sides of the beakers or even dive underwater in search of an exit. They paddle furiously, desperately trying to keep their heads above water. Eventually, they’ll become immobile and start to float.

Laboratory staff dose some animals used in these tests with human antidepressant drugs to see if they struggle and swim for longer than others before starting to float. Although the terrifying experience that rodents endure in laboratories is nothing like what humans suffering from depression go through in a real-world setting, the results of the forced swim test are somehow supposed to predict how drug compounds will affect human brain chemistry.

The paper found that at least 15,238 animals had been used in forced swim test experiments and 109 compounds had been tested.

Of the 109 compounds tested, only 31 have been investigated for their possible effects on any type of depression experienced by humans. Of these 31 compounds.

Furthermore, none of the compounds is currently approved for the market.

The Tide Is Turning Against the Forced Swim Test

Fifteen pharmaceutical companies – including Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, AbbVie Inc, Roche, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk A/S, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, and Bristol Myers Squibb – and two research universities have already banned the forced swim test after hearing from PETA scientists.

And, following a push from PETA UK, influential scientists working for the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency concluded in a scientific paper published in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology that the forced swim test (and equivalent tests on animals) can’t predict the effectiveness of potential new antidepressant drugs. In that article, the authors cited PETA’s work with pharmaceutical companies to end the test.

This new paper is another nail in the coffin for the flawed forced swim test. Previous papers published by co-author Dr Carvalho have demonstrated that favour data from human-relevant, non-animal methods over data from experiments on animals.

Help Animals in Laboratories and Humans With Depression

The forced swim test is bad science. These experiments do nothing more than terrify animals and delay the development of new, effective treatments for humans who desperately need them. You can speak up for animals used in the forced swim test by urging pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to ban it immediately.

Mouse

Take Action

Please join PETA’s “Save Our Skin” Challenge right now!

Donate Now

Recent Press Hits

  • Gradient background with a white rabbit silhouette and the text ‘PETA.’
    PETA Urges Councils to Go Vegan for Climate Resilient 
  • Gradient background with a white rabbit silhouette and the text ‘PETA.’
    Pamplona 2025: What to Expect at the Running of the Bulls
  • Gradient background with a white rabbit silhouette and the text ‘PETA.’
    Exposé of Indian Laboratory Reveals Bloodied Dogs and Pigs

Get PETA Updates

Sign me up for the following e-mail:
Our collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information is guided by the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. More information about our privacy policies and practices is available in our privacy policy. That policy also details how you may access, seek correction of and pursue complaints regarding the personal information we hold about you. If you have any queries about these procedures or any aspect of our work, please contact us on (08) 8556 5828 or at [email protected] or write to us at PO Box 20308, World Square, Sydney NSW 2002. Current subscribers: You will continue to receive e-mails unless you explicitly opt out here.
PETA Fist Logo

Connect with PETA

  • Facebook Icon, PETA International
  • Instagram Icon, PETA International
  • Youtube Icon, PETA International

PETA International Logo

Mailing address:
PO Box 20308 World Square Sydney NSW 2002 ACN – 128209923

Info

  • Contact Us
  • Media Centre
  • Careers
  • Donate Now
  • Subscribe to E-News
  • Bequests

Services

  • Accessibility
  • Site Map
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • © 2025 PETA Australia Pty Ltd. Read our full policy.

International Sites

  • PETA US
  • PETA France
  • PETA Netherlands
  • PETA Germany
  • PETA India
  • PETA UK
  • PETA Asia
  • 亚洲善待动物组织
  • PETA Latino

PETA acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and live. We pay our respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to all other indigenous peoples.

Registered address: PETA Australia Pty Ltd, 219 Henley Beach Road, Torrensville. SA, 5031