Animal models of addiction. Issue 3 (30th September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Spanagel, Rainer
• Is Part Of: Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. Volume 19:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 247
• Page End: 258
• Publication Date: 2017-09-30
• Subjects: biomarker -- cocaine and alcohol addiction -- drug self-administration -- DSM-based animal model -- face validity -- predictive validity -- translational neuroimaging
• DOI: 10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.3/rspanagel
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1958-5969

Abstract

Abstract : In recent years, animal models in psychiatric research have been criticized for their limited translational value to the clinical situation. Failures in clinical trials have thus often been attributed to the lack of predictive power of preclinical animal models. Here, I argue that animal models of voluntary drug intake—under nonoperant and operant conditions—and addiction models based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders are crucial and informative tools for the identification of pathological mechanisms, target identification, and drug development. These models provide excellent face validity, and it is assumed that the neurochemical and neuroanatomical substrates involved in drug-intake behavior are similar in laboratory rodents and humans. Consequently, animal models of drug consumption and addiction provide predictive validity. This predictive power is best illustrated in alcohol research, in which three approved medications—acamprosate, naltrexone, and nalmefene—were developed by means of animal models and then successfully translated into the clinical situation.