Effective use of animal models for therapeutic development in psychiatric and substance use disorders

Athina Markou and others argue forcefully for the adoption of a “translational-back translational strategy” for CNS drug discovery involving novel application of drugs with established safety profiles in proof of principle studies in humans, which in turn encourage parallel studies using experimental animals to provide vital data on the neural systems and ne uropharmacological mechanisms related to the actions of the candidate drugs. Encouraged by the increasing adoption of drug development strategies involving reciprocal information exchange between preclinical animal studies and related clinical research programs, this review presents additional compe lling examples related to 1), the treatment of cognitive deficits that define Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; 2), the development of fast-acting antidepressants based on promising clinical effects with low doses of the anesthetic ketamine; 3), new and effective medications for the treatmen t of substance misuse.

Source: Biological Psychiatry - February 3, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Anthony G. Phillips, Mark A. Geyer, Trevor W. Robbins Tags: Review Source Type: research