L5 - How mad is my mouse? Flashcards
What is the ‘‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?
Assesses symptoms to mak diagnosis, but cannot discern a cause of symptoms
Major depressive Disorder mandates that patients have no signs of ….
Mania, bipolar, schizoaffective, delusional, psychotic disorders
What is the idea of biological psychiatry?
All psychiatric conditions are caused by something biological - something in the brain not in the mind
What gives validity to animals models of psychiatic conditions?
Face - Human symptoms replicated
Construct - underlying biological causation similar
What are the pros and cons of using animals models of psychiatic conditions?
Pros
- Cheap
- Quick
- Ethical
- controlled system, drug treatment naive
Cons
- broad spectrum of symptoms
- complex high order processes
What is the preferred intevention with animal models of psychiatic conditions?
Genes and environmental
What are the measures/outcomes with animals models of psychiatic conditions?
Endophenotypes of psychiatric disorders
- aspects or symptoms of disease which can be modeled independently
describe schizophrenia?
Disrupted dopamine and NMDA receptor neurotransmission
causes emoional withdrawal, loss of motivation and cognitive decline in information processing
is there a strong genetic component to Schizophrenia?
Yes
How is acute phychosis modelled?
Stimulant-induced locomotor activity
- anti-psychotic are usually able to inhibit the outcome
schizophrenia is associated with impairments in sensory integration (attentional and cognitive deficits). How can this be assessed in animal models?
Prepulse inhibition - model of sensory motor gating
look to see whether the startle reflex following prepulse is normal - the reflex is common to all mammals but abnormal in schizophrenics
What is apomorphine and what does it do to the prepulse inhibition?
dopaminergic stimulant
as dose increase, you lose the ability to filter out stimulus, prepulse inhibition goes down
What are the interventions and measurements of major depressive disorder animal models?
Interventions: Genes, stressful environments
measurements: endophenotypes
- lack of pleasure seeking
- behavioural despair
- stress
What test is for the lack of pleasure seeking endophenotype?
Sucrose preference test
What test is for the behavioural despair (depression) endophenotype?
Forced swim test
