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Many techniques are available to investigate pharmacological influences on animal behavior. This presentation will focus on three paradigms that are useful for studying the effects of pharmacological agents on depressive-and anxiety-like behavior in rats. The forced swimming test, FST, is an efficient screening method to determine the anti-depressant properties of potential anti-depressant compounds. In this test the animal’s behavior (climbing, swimming or immobility) is recorded and analyzed. Immobility is considered an index of “behavioral despair,” and less time spent immobile as a result of drug administration would suggest an antidepressantlike action. The locomotor activity test uses infrared photobeams to monitor and measure the animal’s ambulatory and stereotypic behavior and can be used to assess a drug’s anxiolytic or anxiogenic effects. The elevated plus maze (EPM) records the time spent by the …