Should animal models copy the DSM?
Validity criteria that ask animals to match whole DSM syndromes should be dropped in favour of well-understood symptoms or endophenotypes.
Source
Evaluating the validity of animal models of mental disorder: from modeling syndromes to modeling endophenotypes
Study at a glance
- Design
- Other — Philosophy of psychiatry critique of Willner-style syndrome-matching validity for animal models
- N
- Conceptual analysis of validity criteria; not an empirical sample
- Population
- Animal models of mental disorder validated against DSM syndromes
- Outcome
- Replace whole-syndrome validity targets with symptoms or endophenotypes
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
The author reconstructs how mid-century comparative psychiatrists such as McKinney and Bunney tried to model whole syndromes, how Willner’s predictive/face/construct validity packaged that ambition, and why heterogeneity in DSM depression makes one-to-one mapping fail.
What they found
Face validity as symptom similarity pushed researchers toward modelling entire syndromes. Two people can both meet DSM depression without sharing any symptoms. The author argues we should abandon the DSM as the validation standard and follow calls to model well-understood symptom clusters and endophenotypes.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This is not a new mouse experiment and does not prove any particular endophenotype is valid. The NIMH funding figures are cited as historical context, not as this paper’s own accounting.
Key terms
- Face validity
- Similarity of symptoms between the animal setup and the human condition.
- Construct validity
- Whether the model captures the theoretical mechanism of the human disorder.
- Predictive validity
- Whether treatments (e.g. drugs) that work in humans work in the model.
- Endophenotype
- A measurable component along the path from genes to disorder, narrower than a whole syndrome.
Flashcards
Research intelligence for this paper
See its role on concept claims, tensions it is part of, placement history, and related discoveries.
Quiz yourself
Willner’s triad?
Common questions
What is Willner’s triad?
Predictive, face, and construct validity.
Why is DSM depression a bad target?
Two diagnosed people need not share any symptoms.
What instead?
Well-understood symptoms or endophenotypes, not whole manuals.
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