Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:25:29.555Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crazy Like a Fox

Validity and Ethics of Animal Models of Human Psychiatric Disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2014

MICHAEL D. H. ROLLIN  and
BERNARD E. ROLLIN
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Animal models of human disease play a central role in modern biomedical science. Developing animal models for human mental illness presents unique practical and philosophical challenges. In this article we argue that (1) existing animal models of psychiatric disease are not valid, (2) attempts to model syndromes are undermined by current nosology, (3) models of symptoms are rife with circular logic and anthropomorphism, (4) any model must make unjustified assumptions about subjective experience, and (5) any model deemed valid would be inherently unethical, for if an animal adequately models human subjective experience, then there is no morally relevant difference between that animal and a human.

Keywords

animal modelsmental illnesspsychiatric diseasemodel validityanthropomorphismnosology
Type
Special Section: Neuroethics and Animals
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 140 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Reverby, SM. Listening to narratives from the Tuskegee syphilis study. Lancet 2011;377(9778):1646–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

2. Gennarelli, TA, Thibault, LE, Adams, JH, Graham, DI, Thompson, CJ, Marcincin, RP. Diffuse axonal injury and traumatic coma in the primate. Annals of Neurology 1982;12(6):564–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

3. For more comprehensive surveys, see, e.g., Nestler, EJ, Hyman, SE. Animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders. Nature Neuroscience 2010;13(10):1161–9.Google Scholar

4. Also, Koob, GF. Animal models of psychiatric disorders. Handbook of Clinical Neurology; 2012;106:137–66.Google Scholar

5. Cronbach, LJ, Meehl, PE. Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin 1955;52(4):281–302.Google Scholar

6. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th ed.Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press; 1994.Google Scholar

7. Beck, AT, Steer, RA, Brown, GK. Manual for Beck Depression Inventory–II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation; 1996.Google Scholar

8. See note 6, American Psychiatric Association 1994.

9. Kleinman, A. Triumph or pyrrhic victory? The inclusion of culture in DSM-IV. Harvard Review of Psychiatry 1997;4(6):343–4.Google Scholar

10. Safer, D. Irritable mood and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 2009;3(1):35.Google Scholar

11. Preskorn, SH, Baker, B. The overlap of DSM-IV syndromes: Potential implications for the practice of polypsychopharmacology, psychiatric drug development, and the human genome project. Journal of Psychiatric Practice 2002;8(3):170–7.Google Scholar

12. Kessler, RC, Chiu, WT, Demler, O, Merikangas, KR, Walters, EE. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry 2005;62(6):617–27.Google Scholar

13. Borsboom, D, Cramer, AO, Schmittmann, VD, Epskamp, S, Waldorp, LJ. The small world of psychopathology. PloS One 2011;6(11):e27407.Google Scholar

14. See note 3, Nestler, Hyman 2010, at 1162.

15. See note 4, Koob 2012, at 137.

16. See note 6, American Psychiatric Association 1994, at 300.

17. See note 3, Nestler, Hyman 2010.

18. Belforte, JE, Zsiros, V, Sklar, ER, Jiang, Z, Yu, G, Li, Y, et al. Postnatal NMDA receptor ablation in corticolimbic interneurons confers schizophrenia-like phenotypes. Nature Neuroscience 2010;13(1):76–83.Google Scholar

19. Filali, M, Lalonde, R. Age-related cognitive decline and nesting behavior in an APPswe/PS1 bigenic model of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain Research 2009;1292:93–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. Song, C, Leonard, BE. The olfactory bulbectomised rat as a model of depression. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 2005;29(4–5):627–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

21. Matsutani, S, Yamamoto, N. Centrifugal innervation of the mammalian olfactory bulb. Anatomical Science International 2008;83(4):218–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

22. See note 20, Song, Leonard 2005.

23. Carlini, VP, Machado, DG, Buteler, F, Ghersi, M, Ponzio, MF, Martini, AC, et al. Acute ghrelin administration reverses depressive-like behavior induced by bilateral olfactory bulbectomy in mice. Peptides 2012;35(2):160–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

24. See note 4, Koob 2012.

25. See note 6, American Psychiatric Association 1994 [emphasis added], at 462.

26. Albelda, N, Joel, D. Animal models of obsessive-compulsive disorder: Exploring pharmacology and neural substrates. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 2012;36(1):47–63.Google Scholar

27. Lewis, M, Kim, SJ. The pathophysiology of restricted repetitive behavior. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders 2009;1(2):114–32.Google Scholar

28. Swaisgood, RR, Shepherdson, DJ. Scientific approaches to enrichment and stereotypies in zoo animals: What’s been done and where should we go next? Zoo Biology 2005;24(6):499–518.Google Scholar

29. Rollin, BE. The moral status of animals and their use as experimental subjects. In: Kuhse, H, Singer, P, eds. A Companion to Bioethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell; 2001:411–24.Google Scholar