Modeling Trauma to Develop Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic mental health disorder that impairs daily functioning and reduces overall quality of life. Current treatments are effective only in some patient populations and do not adequately address all aspects of PTSD's complex symptomatology. This is largely attributable to current gaps in knowledge about the pathophysiology of the disorder. Animal models of PTSD are a critical part of the drug discovery process. Animal models of PTSD use intense stressors to model trauma exposure and careful outcome measures translatable to PTSD symptoms to probe the central mechanisms underpinning the disorder. This review highlights common animal models of PTSD and their strengths and weaknesses in modeling the disorder. Outcome measures of translational value and the utility of these models for making further discoveries to inform the treatment of PTSD arc also discussed.