Qui non proficit, deficit: Experimental models for 'integrative' research of affective disorders

Experimental models are an important tool for the study of biological mechanisms of psychiatric disorders. Although encouraging progress has been made in biological psychiatry of affective disorders, there remain numerous methodological, conceptual, and translational challenges in this field. Mounting clinical data support the view that psychiatric disorders as spectra, rather than as discrete or isolated illnesses. This requires new theories as well as new animal paradigms for integrative modeling of psychiatric disorders and their spectra. Here we discuss recent integrative experimental models and concepts that promise to advance translational research of affective disorders. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.