‘While other fields in biology advance rapidly, behavioral pharmacology is inappropriately stagnant, and animal models now used are fast becoming obselete, today argued a leading expert. But such models are still useful for screening new candidate drugs, others countered.

Psychiatric disorders are defined by changes in behavior, so researchers have used behavioral animal models for preclinical drug development. But with new information in genetics, biochemistry and physiology, “is it still appropriate to emphasize behavior?” asked David Sanger, a researcher at Sanofi-Synthelabo Research in Bagneux, France.’ BioMedNet