Abstract
opposite effects, while agents that have no effect in the clinic should have no effect in these tests. ‐ The criterion of construct validity relates to the similarity between the theoretical rationale underlying the animal model and the human behaviour. This requires that the aetiology of the behaviour and the biological factors underlying the disorder may be similar in animals and humans. Often researchers fail to specify if they are seeking a correlation model (e.g. predictive validity, a model that is selectivity sensitive to therapeutic agents), an isomorphic model (face validity, a model that implies the behavioural response in the human and animal is the same) or a homologous model (true construct validity, a model that implies the “cause” of the behavioural response in the animal is suffi cient to provoke the same response in humans). Behaviour can be both an event and a process and observable behaviours are the result of the integration of all of the processes ongoing in underlying organ systems, in interaction with the external social and physical environment. Animal models can allow the study of mechanisms of specifi c behaviours and their pathophysiology and can aid in developing and predicting therapeutic responses to pharmacological agents. The translation of preclinical research to
Highlights
Nowadays psychopharmacology is a link between the neurosciences and the psychiatry
Animal models for psychopathology have become an invaluable tool in the analysis of the multitude of causes, genetic, environmental or pharmacological that can bring about symptoms homologous to those of patients with a specific disorder (Bourin, 1997), despite traditional difficulties in accepting these models that stem from the argument that there is no evidence for concluding that what occurs in the brain of the animal is equivalent to what occurs in the brain of a human
– Predictive validity entails that the model should be sensitive to clinically effective pharmacological agents and anxiogenic compounds should elicit opposite effects, while agents that have no effect in the clinic should have no effect in these tests. – The criterion of construct validity relates to the similarity between the theoretical rationale underlying the animal model and the human behaviour
Summary
Nowadays psychopharmacology is a link between the neurosciences and the psychiatry. The emergence of precise targets of drugs in the brain with the help of binding studies was a great progress in the discovery of new drugs and the beginning of the knowledge of mechanisms of action. – Face validity, where the model is phenotypically similar and implies that the response observed in the animal model should be identical to the behavioural and physiological responses observed in humans. – Predictive validity entails that the model should be sensitive to clinically effective pharmacological agents and anxiogenic compounds should elicit opposite effects, while agents that have no effect in the clinic should have no effect in these tests.
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