SYMPOSIA
SYMPOSIA
SYMPOSIA
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Abstracts of the Invited Speakers<br />
Genetic models in anxiety disorders<br />
Nurper Erberk Özen<br />
Department of Psychiatry, Ufuk University, Ankara, Turkey<br />
E-mail: nerberk@superonline.com<br />
Animal models are key to our understanding of many human diseases and psychiatric disorders are no exception. Animal models have<br />
provided insight into the neurotransmitter systems and brain circuitry underlying psychiatric illnesses that have enabled the screening<br />
of potential psychiatric medications for efficacy and guided the search for new pharmacotherapies. However, modeling complex<br />
psychiatric disorders in animals presents distinct challenges. Modeling psychiatric disorders in animals is difficult due to the complexity<br />
of human thoughts, emotions, and behavior; the heterogeneity of many psychiatric disorders; and the requirement of self-reporting of<br />
internal state for diagnosis. According to the DSM-IV, most psychiatric diagnoses are made when a patient displays a certain number of<br />
diagnostic criteria. However, patients with the same diagnosis can differ significantly in specific symptoms, perhaps implying differences<br />
in the underlying etiology of their disorders and explaining the heterogeneity of response to pharmacotherapy. Many symptoms are<br />
identified by the patient’s report of internal state (e.g., obsessive obtrusive thoughts or ruminations). This leads to questions of how we<br />
can best model disorders in animals that are, by definition, both heterogeneous and dependent on report of internal state. Rather than<br />
attempting to model a psychiatric disorder in its entirety, most neuroscientists focus on individual aspects or dimensions of a disorder<br />
and use physical manifestations and measurable behaviors when modeling a particular aspect.<br />
Inferences from experiments with animal models have the potential to impact clinical practice; therefore, stringently validating such<br />
models is of utmost importance. The strengths and weaknesses of a model can be conceptualized with different types of validity.<br />
Three important types of validity are suggested as predictive, face, and construct validity. In the first one, the animal should display<br />
reduced anxiety when treated with anxiolytics (predictive validity). In the second type, the behavioral response of an animal model to<br />
a threatening stimulus should be comparable to the response known for humans (face validity). Finally, in the third type of validity, the<br />
mechanisms underlying anxiety as well as the psychological causes should be identical (construct validity). In the meantime there is no<br />
consensus about which type of validity is superior. Some authors argue that predictive validity is most essential but the others suggest<br />
that constructive validity is the most crucial. On the other hand, these three requirements are difficult to achieve in any animal model for<br />
each anxiety disorder. Moreover, in the related literature, the term“animal model of anxiety” is used for animals that are altered in their<br />
anxiety-related behavior, as well as for test assays conceptualized to assess anxiety-related behavior in animals.<br />
Key words: Anxiety disorders, genetic, rat, transgenic<br />
Bulletin of Clinical Psychopharmacology 2011;21(Suppl. 2):S68<br />
Anxiety models in experimental animals<br />
Hüseyin Günay<br />
Etimesgut Military Hospital, Psychiatry Clinic, Ankara, Turkey<br />
E-mail: huseyingunaydr@yahoo.com<br />
The basic measure in testing validity of an animal model is its prediction validity, which means making true assumptions for a disorder<br />
in humans. The necessary features of an animal model are analogy to a disorder in humans, objective testing, effective interventions in<br />
humans and the capability of retesting. Structural validity is the capability to retest of the target condition and first sight validity is the<br />
measurement of phenomenological similarity. First sight validity points to the surface similarity between the model and the disease and<br />
structural validity points to the underlying mechanisms. Anxiety models are mainly used in understanding causes and mechanisms and<br />
also determining drug effects. Anxiety in animals, which is similar to humans, can be developed with different environmental conditions.<br />
These situations can help to understand and intervene to treat anxiety. Three ways are used in the development of anxiety models: using<br />
a new environment, reward and punishment applications, and punishment procedures.<br />
Anxiety models using new environment:<br />
These are the methods for establishing and evaluating anxiety models in a new environment, such as elevated plus maze and derivers,<br />
elevated T-maze, open field, staircase test, social isolation, novelty suppressed feeding, social interaction, holeboard, predatory odor,<br />
operant conflict tests for reward-punishment applications and experiments with punishment procedures such as defensive burying,<br />
passive avoidance, foot shock, hot plate and four plate tests.<br />
S68 Bulletin of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Vol: 21, Supplement: 2, 2011 - www.psikofarmakoloji.org