Behavioural Models in Psychopharmacology

Book excerpt: Behavioural models in psychopharmacology are used for different purposes. The main concern of industrial psychopharmacologists is specifically to develop new and improved drugs for the treatment of mental disorders, while basic scientists use animal models to investigate the underlying nature of such conditions. The important distinction between these different perspectives is made explicit for the first time in this book. By considering such conditions as anxiety, depression, mania and schizophrenia, feeding disorders, dementia, and drug dependence, this book provides a comprehensive and critical review of the adequacy of the behavioural procedures used by psychopharmacologists to model psychiatric disorders. Graduate students and research workers in pscyhopharmacology, from both academic and industrial spheres, as well as clinicians, will find this book of considerable interest.