Animal models as research tools in depression

✍ Scribed by Paul Willner

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 778 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/gps.930060620

✦ Synopsis

Animal models of depression are often thought to be of little relevance for understanding the clinical disorder, since the behaviours involved frequently carry little conviction as analogues of human behaviour. However, to dismiss animal models on these grounds is to misunderstand their purpose-or rather purposes. The most familiar usage of animal models of depression is within the pharmaceutical industry, as screening tests in the development of novel antidepressants. As the only purpose of drug screening is to produce new drugs, the extent to which the procedures used resemble the clinical disorder is largely irrelevant: the major issue is whether a test successfully predicts clinical efficacy. This article is concerned with a different aspect of animal models of depression, their use as simulations for investigating the psychobiology of depression.