Rat pups were treated with monoamine uptake inhibiting antidepressant drugs, desipramine, imipramine or nomifensine (5 mg/kg) during the second and third postnatal weeks, and their later behavioral "despair," measured by Porsolt's swim test, was examined. At the age of two months, the desipramine-treated rats showed lengthened immobility in the swim test, and thus probably increased behavioral "despair." They also responded to 1 g/kg alcohol by shortening the immobility to the level of control rats. Neonatal treatment with either imipramine or nomifensine did not affect the swim test behavior. The results suggest that a low, stimulatory dose of alcohol was able to reverse the lengthened immobility in the swim test of rats treated with desipramine during the early postnatal period.