Research data · Disease model and test

Von Frey test in depression research

From 2021 to 2025, 41 animal research papers on depression mentioned the von Frey test in their title or abstract.

There were 8 such papers in 2011 to 2015. We compare the two periods only when each has 10 or more papers.

41 papers on depression from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the von Frey test
1% of the papers on depression that mention any test mention the von Frey test
3% of the papers that mention the von Frey test are on depression
8 papers in 2011 to 2015, fewer than the 10 needed to compare

Papers by year

Animal research papers on depression that mention the von Frey test, by year, 2001 to 2026

The 2026 bar counts papers added to PubMed by November 8, 2026.

  • Papers in a full year
  • 2026 so far
Show the counts for each year
Papers by year
YearPapers
20010
20020
20030
20040
20050
20060
20071
20080
20090
20103
20111
20120
20131
20142
20154
20160
20176
20185
20197
202015
202113
20226
20235
20248
20259
2026 (part year)10

Papers on depression that mention the von Frey test fell from 13 in 2021 to 5 in 2023, then rose to 9 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. Where PubMed has indexed a paper, we take its disease models from that indexing. Otherwise PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract, or the paper is not counted here. Papers that PubMed indexed under the subject heading Animals also fell and rose, from 200,221 in 2021 to 156,447 in 2023 and 235,479 in 2025.

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 41 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse
26 papers 63%
Rat
16 papers 39%
Other animals
1 paper 2%

“Other animals” counts papers that use none of the species this chart names.

Tests mentioned alongside the von Frey test

Each bar is one test, with how many of the 41 papers also mention it, and what share that is. Of these papers, 4 (10%) mention no other test.

The 12 tests these papers mention most

27 papers 66%
14 papers 34%
12 papers 29%
5 papers 12%
5 papers 12%
4 papers 10%
3 papers 7%
3 papers 7%

Which papers count

A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions the von Frey test in its title or abstract, and studies depression.

We tell whether a paper studies depression from its MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. For a paper without MeSH terms, PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one disease model. A paper that mentions the test only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.

The page on depression research names the subject headings we count as depression. Download the test list for the search terms we used for the von Frey test, or the paper list for the PubMed ID of every paper behind these counts. Our main page, Behavioral tests in published research, has the full method and each source's terms of use.

More tests and disease models

Every pairing of a disease model and a test with 30 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 has a page like this one.

Papers on other disease models that mention the von Frey test

The page on the von Frey test counts all the papers that mention it, whatever they study. The page on depression research ranks the tests by their papers on depression.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Von Frey test in depression research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/depression/von-frey

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_depression_von_frey_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Von Frey test in depression research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/depression/von-frey},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

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