3Rs as part of preclinical neuropsychiatric translational crisis, and ARRIVE guidelines as part of solution

The ongoing translational and reproducibility crisis dominates preclinical research today as results from animal studies often disappoint when transferred to human clinical studies. This problem is especially relevant in the field of brain diseases and translational neuropsychiatry.

Here, we discuss if the 3R concept could be part of the translational crisis.

The focus has been on the second R, which is to reduce the variation between the experimental animals, so that the number of animals per study can be reduced. However, the risk of obtaining false results has also increased. We, therefore, recommend that researchers use a broader perspective as also suggest by Russell and Burch who founded the 3Rs when considering the 3R concept, which involves the translational aspects described in detail in their 3R book from 1959.

This may together with systematic reviews and well-designed and well-performed animal studies and accurate reporting of the results indeed contribute to solving the translational crisis in preclinical research.