Experimental disease models for mechanistic understanding and drug discovery for psychiatric disorders.

Abstract

Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression are considered to be complex diseases that result from an interaction of many ge- netic and environmental risk factors associated with the diseases. The underlying molecular mechanisms, however, remain largely unknown and there are conditions, the treatment of which is not necessarily satisfactory due to inadequate therapeutic effect or treatment resistance. Therefore, scientific research on the brain functions and dysfunctions as well as development of better treatments is crucially important. In the present review, I will attempt to discuss such a research using animal disease models together with genetic studies in human disorders and point out future directions of the translational research on psychiatric disorders.