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The Use of Animal Models in Defining Antidepressant Response: A Translational Approach

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Understanding Depression

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Abstract

Animal models of depression are widely used by the pharmaceutical industry to find new molecules that are likely to have antidepressant activity in humans but also to better understand the mechanism of action of antidepressants. It is difficult to choose a model that is relevant to the purpose that has been set. These models are compromises between clinical complexity and the simplicity of the development of the experimental paradigm. Five of the most commonly utilised behavioural animal models of depression, the mouse forced swimming test (FST), the rat FST, the tail suspension test (TST), the chronic mild stress (CMS) model, the learned helplessness (LH) paradigm and a model based on neuronal deficit, the olfactory bulbectomy (OB), are discussed in this review. All these models present various symptoms of depression in animals suggested to resemble specific aspects of the human illness. Their use enables the investigation of the underlying neurobiology of depression, as well as the mechanism of action of antidepressants and the screening of potential antidepressants. It appears that the mouse FST is the most suitable animal of depression in predicting antidepressant response as it is easily and rapidly performed, robust, specific for antidepressant drugs and reproducible. Moreover, it permits a good correlation with clinical studies in a translational approach.

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  1. Neurobiology of Anxiety and Mood Disorders, University of Nantes, Nantes, France

    Michel Bourin

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  1. College of Medicine, Korea University, Kyonggi-do, Korea (Republic of)

    Yong-Ku Kim

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Bourin, M. (2018). The Use of Animal Models in Defining Antidepressant Response: A Translational Approach. In: Kim, YK. (eds) Understanding Depression . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6580-4_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6580-4_20

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