Animal models provide an opportunity to decipher the relationships between
the nervous system and animal behaviour as they serve as obligatory tools for screening
for new drugs. As psychosis is a chronic and complex mental disorder, therefore,
different theories are available. However, the pathophysiology of psychosis is still not
fully clear, making it challenging to develop a coherent framework appropriate for
animal modeling. Though, limited animal models are available to explore several
relevant theories and to evaluate specific mechanistic hypotheses. These animal models
have been based on neurotransmitter systems supposed to be involved in psychosis.
Now, the emphasis has been shifted to targeting related brain areas to explore possible
pathophysiological hypotheses. In the present chapter, the authors have described
various behavioural and non-behavioural animal models to test for antipsychotics.
Emphasis has been given to the procedure because these models help to shape the
direction of future research.
Keywords: Animal model, Behavioural models, Non-behavioural models,
Psychosis.
