Agent 3Z: testing...testing...

My sister did her internship at a big pharmaceutical company. Last month she told me how they tested the effectiveness of a new anti depressant. They made the rat swim in a big bucket full of water. The rat then tries everything to swim and get out but this is useless since it has nothing to grip on to. (the sides are slippery).
It, at a certain point, just gives up and floats quietly in the water. Which to me makes all the sense. Why frantically swim with the risk of drowning if you already figured there’s nothing you can do.

But these scientists see this as “giving up” and this to them is the first sign of a depression. They then give the rat gradual amounts of the new anti depressant. The longer the rat  tries to swim and get out, the more effective the medication allegedly is.

See? This kind of reasoning (and testing) that makes me weary of just taking (new) drugs. I know before medication comes out on the market more tests and such are done. But seriously….methods of science sometimes baffle me. No wonder many new drugs have been removed from the market.