Animal Models of Anxiety and Depression

Animal models of psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression attempt to represent some aspect of the etiology, symptomatology, or treatment of these disorders, in order to facilitate their scientific study (Treit, 1994; Mineka, 1985; Marks, 1987; Willner, 1994). Within this broad context, animal models of anxiolytic or antidepressant drug action can be viewed as treatment models concerned with the pharmacological control of human anxiety and depression. Animal models of anxiety, for example, have been particularly useful in the preclmical testing of benzodiazepme-type anxiolytics, in studying the functional relevance of the GABA_A -benzodiazepine receptor system, and in characterizing the effects of benzodiazepine antagonists (e.g., Ro 15–1788 [flumazeml]), partial agonists (e.g., CGS 98961, and inverse agonists (e.g., B-CCM). For reviews see Thlebot (1983); La1 and Emmett-Oglesby (1983); File (1984;1985;1987); Crawley (1985); Treit (1985a;1994); Shephard (1986); Gardner (1988); Thiebot et al. (1988); and Lister (1990).