Animal models of anxiety: are they suitable for predicting drug action in humans?

Currently there are numerous animal models of anxiety. A major concern with these models is their relevance with regard to predicting drug activity in humans. In the present review we try to make a parallel between the DSM IV classification of anxiety disorders and different models of anxiety in animals. These tests often measure more than one factor, so probably most of them are suitable as models of generalized anxiety disorder. Yet panic disorder appears to be more closely related to the elevated plus maze and to aversion in the rat, phobia to electric shock, posttraumatic stress to uncontrolled shock, and obsessive compulsive disorder to ultrasonic vocalization. But all these tests have to be revised using antidepressants active in these kinds of anxiety disorders.