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Review
. 2019 Sep 28;20(19):4827.
doi: 10.3390/ijms20194827.

Selecting an Appropriate Animal Model of Depression

Yuanzhen Hao  1 , Huixiang Ge  2 , Mengyun Sun  3 , Yun Gao  4
Affiliations
Review

Selecting an Appropriate Animal Model of Depression

Yuanzhen Hao et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Depression has become one of the most severe psychiatric disorders and endangers the health of living beings all over the world. In order to explore the molecular mechanism that underlies depression, different kinds of animal models of depression are used in laboratory experiments. However, a credible and reasonable animal model that is capable of imitating the pathologic mechanism of depression in mankind has yet to be found, resulting in a barrier to further investigation of depression. Nevertheless, it is possible to explain the pathologic mechanism of depression to a great extent by a rational modeling method and behavioral testing. This review aims to provide a reference for researchers by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of some common animal depression models.

Keywords: animal model; behavior test; depression.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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