Research data · Disease model
Substance use disorders
From 2021 to 2025, 1,599 animal research papers on substance use disorders mentioned at least one behavioral test, most often self-administration.
That is 12% fewer than the 1,815 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, all the animal research papers that mention any of the 90 tests we count rose 22%. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.
The tests these papers mention
Self-administration appears in 50% of the papers on substance use disorders and in 4.3% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 12 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 1,599 papers from 2021 to 2025 on substance use disorders mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.
The 15 tests these papers mention most
All 65 tests these papers mention
| Test | Papers | Share of the 1,599 papers on substance use disorders | Share of all 32,277 papers that mention a test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-administration | 807 | 50% | 4% |
| Conditioned place preference | 403 | 25% | 3% |
| Operant conditioning | 178 | 11% | 3% |
| Elevated plus maze | 138 | 9% | 9% |
| Open field | 93 | 6% | 12% |
| Forced swim test | 66 | 4% | 9% |
| Novel object recognition | 38 | 2% | 9% |
| Sucrose preference test | 37 | 2% | 5% |
| Morris water maze | 36 | 2% | 17% |
| Light-dark box | 33 | 2% | 2% |
| Fear conditioning | 31 | 2% | 6% |
| Hot plate | 29 | 2% | 2% |
| Tail flick | 27 | 2% | 2% |
| Tail suspension test | 27 | 2% | 4% |
| Wheel running | 25 | 2% | 3% |
| Y-maze | 23 | 1% | 6% |
| Passive avoidance | 20 | 1% | 4% |
| Marble burying | 19 | 1% | 1% |
| Rotarod | 17 | 1% | 6% |
| Social interaction test | 17 | 1% | 1% |
| Novelty-suppressed feeding | 16 | 1% | 1% |
| Drug discrimination | 16 | 1% | under 1% |
| Prepulse inhibition and acoustic startle | 15 | 1% | 2% |
| Treadmill running | 14 | 1% | 6% |
| Von Frey test | 13 | 1% | 4% |
| Predator odor exposure | 10 | 1% | 1% |
| Barnes maze | 10 | 1% | 2% |
| Five-choice serial reaction time task | 9 | 1% | under 1% |
| Attentional set shifting | 8 | 1% | under 1% |
| Active avoidance (shuttle box) | 7 | under 1% | 1% |
| Three-chamber sociability test | 6 | under 1% | 1% |
| Writhing test | 6 | under 1% | 2% |
| Catalepsy bar test | 6 | under 1% | 1% |
| Radial arm maze | 6 | under 1% | 1% |
| Formalin test | 5 | under 1% | 2% |
| Elevated zero maze | 5 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Hargreaves plantar test | 5 | under 1% | 1% |
| Self-grooming | 5 | under 1% | 1% |
| Resident-intruder test | 4 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Runway | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Touchscreen operant tasks | 3 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Grip strength | 3 | under 1% | 4% |
| T-maze | 3 | under 1% | 1% |
| Hole-board | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Splash test | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Negative geotaxis and climbing assays | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Looming stimulus | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Real-time place preference | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Beam walking | 2 | under 1% | 2% |
| Novel tank test | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Social operant tasks | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Object location test | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Step-down avoidance | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Tube test for social dominance | 2 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Nest building | 2 | under 1% | 1% |
| Social approach and avoidance | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Wire hang and inverted grid | 1 | under 1% | 1% |
| Three-choice serial reaction time task | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Learned helplessness | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Gait analysis | 1 | under 1% | 3% |
| Grid walking (foot fault) | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Cold plate | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Thermal gradient and temperature preference | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Ladder rung walking | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
| Rotational behavior (rotometer) | 1 | under 1% | under 1% |
Papers by year
Animal research papers on substance use disorders that mention a behavioral 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
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 177 |
| 2002 | 193 |
| 2003 | 221 |
| 2004 | 186 |
| 2005 | 207 |
| 2006 | 253 |
| 2007 | 273 |
| 2008 | 326 |
| 2009 | 280 |
| 2010 | 266 |
| 2011 | 309 |
| 2012 | 357 |
| 2013 | 373 |
| 2014 | 428 |
| 2015 | 348 |
| 2016 | 386 |
| 2017 | 390 |
| 2018 | 432 |
| 2019 | 370 |
| 2020 | 398 |
| 2021 | 392 |
| 2022 | 301 |
| 2023 | 270 |
| 2024 | 303 |
| 2025 | 333 |
| 2026 (part year) | 285 |
Papers on substance use disorders that mention a test fell from 392 in 2021 to 270 in 2023, then rose to 333 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 1,599 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
“Other animals” counts papers that use none of the species this chart names.
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions at least one of the 90 tests and studies substance use disorders.
MeSH terms are the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper counts under substance use disorders when its MeSH terms include Substance-Related Disorders or one of 13 related headings.
For a paper without MeSH terms, PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, supplies the disease model when it finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one disease model.
Our main page, Behavioral tests in published research, has the full method and each source's terms of use. Its downloads list each paper and its disease models.
More disease models
These disease models also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention a test. Each disease model with 100 or more such papers gets one.
- Cognitive impairment and dementia 4,961 papers
- Anxiety 3,041 papers
- Depression 2,827 papers
- Pain conditions 2,617 papers
- Alzheimer disease 2,445 papers
- Psychological stress 1,484 papers
- Stroke and brain ischemia 1,278 papers
- Parkinson disease 918 papers
- Brain injury 841 papers
- Diabetes 795 papers
- Obesity and high-fat diet 761 papers
- Aging 700 papers
- Epilepsy and seizures 572 papers
- Autism spectrum disorder 484 papers
- Schizophrenia and psychosis 401 papers
- Sleep loss and sleep disorders 400 papers
- Post-traumatic stress 392 papers
- Spinal cord injury 382 papers
- Multiple sclerosis and demyelination 223 papers
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 108 papers
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 107 papers
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Behavioral tests in substance use disorders research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/substance-use
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_substance_use_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Behavioral tests in substance use disorders research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/models/substance-use},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Shop apparatus by test
Our store sells apparatus for all the 10 tests these papers mention most.
- Self-administration
- Conditioned place preference
- Operant conditioning
- Elevated plus maze
- Open field
- Forced swim test
- Novel object recognition
- Sucrose preference test
- Morris water maze
- Light-dark box
