Ace Therapeutics has developed various behavioral tests to assess different types of anxiety. Experimental animals are placed in a series of stressful situations that produce emotional disorders. We apply specific tools to test the behavioral and physiological indicators of experimental animals, providing researchers with effective methods to explore the in-depth mechanisms of emotional disorders and identify and screen anti-anxiety drugs.
Introduction of Anxiety Behavior Tests
Anxiety is a medical condition related to our mental and physical behavior, with many cognitive, affective, behavioral and physical characteristics. There are four types of anxiety: generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder. There are two other conditions that also present with anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Rodent-based behavioral tests and models are widely used to understand the mechanisms by which stress triggers anxiety-related behaviors and to identify new approaches to treating anxiety-related disorders.
Fig. 1 Classification of anxiety disorder. (Himanshu, et al., 2020)
Anxiety Behavior Testing Services
Ace Therapeutics offers a variety of classic anxiety behavior testing experiments. These tests play an important role in exploring the mechanisms of anxiety and anti-anxiety drugs, allowing research to better predict clinical outcomes in humans, improving the success of clinical trials, and accelerating the development of new treatments. Anxiety behavior tests that we offer include but are not limited to the following:
| Behavioral tests |
Animals used |
Response to be observed |
Inference of the observation |
Types of anxiety can be evaluated |
| Elevated plus maze |
Mice, Rats, Gerbils |
Change in entries and time spend in open arm |
If increase: drug shows its anxiolytic effect
If decrease: drug does not have anxiolytic effect |
Generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias, PTSD |
| The light and dark box |
Mice and Rats |
Change in entries and time spent in light box |
If increase: drug shows its anxiolytic effect
If decrease: drug does not have anxiolytic effect |
Generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias |
| Marble burying behavior model |
Mice and Rats |
Change in the number of marbles buried |
If increase: drug does not have anxiolytic effect
If decrease: drug shows its anxiolytic effect |
OCD |
| The hole board model |
Mice and Rats |
Change in locomotory, head dipping and head rearing behavior |
If increase: drug shows its anxiolytic effect
If decrease: drug does not have anxiolytic effect |
Generalized anxiety, specific phobias, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder |
| The open-field test |
Mice and Rats |
Change in locomotory, Rearing, time spent moving, distance moved and change in activity over time |
If time spent in centre part is more than time spent in perimeter than drugs consider as anxiolytic |
Generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and panic disorder |
Applications of Anxiety Behavior Tests
- Anxiety-related diseases and drug mechanism research.
- Research on the mechanism of action of anti-anxiety drugs.
- Screening and efficacy evaluation of anti-anxiety drugs.
Ace Therapeutics selects the appropriate anxiety behavior testing method according to your research needs and provides high-quality testing services for your research. If you are interested, please make an inquiry with a description of your specific research and we will be happy to assist you.
Reference
- Himanshu; Dharmila, Sarkar D; Nutan. A Review of Behavioral Tests to Evaluate Different Types of Anxiety and Anti-anxiety Effects. Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci. 2020, 18(3):341-351.
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