Animal models of psychopathology and its relation to clinical practice

Abstract

For decades, neuroscientists have been carrying out studies using animal models. Clinical professionals do not use the data originated from these studies because the interpretation of these studies may be a hard task for them. How data generated in studies with animals lead to practical use in psychological and psychiatric clinics is a common question in courses and meetings in this area of science. There are two typical mistakes often occurring in daily practice, namely, the transposition of data directly from laboratories to clinics or simply ignoring such data. In the first intance, the characteristics of species and the limits of these studies are ignored by therapists; in the second, the professionals do not read the studies because the issues are not familiar to them. We believe that this problem occurs because the concept of an animal model is not clear to many therapists. In this chapter we will discuss the concept of behavioral animal models, its limitations and possibilities of simulating a mental pathology; we show the differences between the use of animal models in behavioral sciences and in others fields of research in biomedical sciences; we discuss the criteria and processes of validation of an animal model; and finally, we give some advice to clinical professionals on the reading of animal models in the literature. Keywords Behavioral animal models Experimental psychology Psychiatric models Psichopathology Pshichopharmacology