To model a psychiatric disorder in animals: Schizophrenia as a reality test

Animal modeling has been instrumental in dissecting pathophysiological mech anisms and designing more effective therapies in many areas of medicine but not so in psychiatry. The critical obstacle in modeling psychiatric disord ers has been limited information about their origin and underlying neural m echanisms. Recently, with rapidly growing knowledge about the neurobiology and genetics of psychiatric disorders, animal models of these diseases are gaining popularity in psychiatric research. New models of schizophrenia mim ic biological phenomena associated with the clinical condition, particularl y developmental changes in the cortex, abnormalities of glutamate neurotran smission, and genetic characteristics of selected behavioral traits. The bi ological fidelity of some aspects of these new models suggests that they wi ll be useful in the development of new therapies, in identifying candidate genes, and in providing new insights about pathophysiology and etiology. (C) 2000 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Published by Elsevier Science Inc. All right reserved.