Phencyclidine in the social interaction test: an animal model of schizophrenia with face and predictive validity

Phencyclidine (PCP) is a hallucinogenic drug that can mimic several aspects of the schizophrenic symptomatology in healthy volunteers. In a series of studies PCP was administered to rats to determine whether it was possible to develop an animal model of the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The rats were tested in the social interaction test and it was found that PCP dose-dependently induces stereotyped behaviour and social withdrawal, which may correspond to certain aspects of the positive and negative symptoms, respectively. The effects of PCP could be reduced selectively by antipsychotic drug treatment, whereas drugs lacking antipsychotic effects did not alleviate the PCP-induced behaviours. Together these findings indicate that PCP effects in the rat social interaction test may be a model of the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia with face and predictive validity and that it may be useful for the evaluation of novel antipsychotic compounds.