Schizophrenia: Modeling a complex psychiatric disorder

Despite its complexity, schizophrenia can be deconstructed into individual phenotypic components that can be analyzed in animal models. Here we discuss recent advances in genetic animal models, which in conjunction with in vitro and in silico models of disease components promise to provide novel insights into disease pathogenesis and facilitate generation of novel treatments. Although we specifically focus on models of schizophrenia, our discussion is relevant to psychiatric disorders in general.

Section editor:Wolfgang Wurst – Institute of Developmental Genetics, GSF Research Centre, Neuherberg, Germany