Animal models of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) occurs with high prevalence, and the drugs used to treat OCD are limited in efficacy and have side-effect issues. The discovery of improved medicines for OCD has been hampered in part by the lack of predictive in vivo models. This unit provides a brief overview of two methods that might have such predictive utility. Marble burying and nestlet shredding are two behaviors that occur spontaneously with high frequency and repetitiveness in mice. These acute in vivo assays are relatively easy to conduct. Selective serotonin uptake inhibitors decrease these behaviors without producing motor side effects, as assessed by the behavior of walking on a rotating rod. In contrast, some other drugs (e.g., benzodiazepine anxiolytics) only affect marble burying and nestlet shredding at motor-impairing doses. The present methods might therefore provide one piece of in vivo information for the discovery of novel chemical treatment solutions for the symptoms of OCD. Copyright 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.