Perinatal ketamine Model

Question 1

What condition is the perinatal ketamine model used for?

Answer 1

Schizophrenia

Question 2

What is the perinatal ketamine model used to understand?

Answer 2

origins of Schizophrenia

Question 3

What are the two ways that perinatal ketamine model is conducted?

Answer 3

Direct adminitration:
* injected into young instramuscularly

Indirect adminitration:
* Injected into pregnant mother
* injected into breast feeding mother

Question 4

How does the perinatal ketamine model work?

Answer 4

Young aniamls given low doses of ketamine during critical brain development

As they grow > show changes in behaviour/brain function that resembles some features of schizophrenia

Question 5

What does the perinatal ketamine model help show?

Answer 5

disruptions in brain chemistry leading to long term problems in:
* cognition
* social interaction
* emotional regulation

Question 6

What is the strength of face validity in the perinatal ketamine model?

Answer 6

2.Moderate

Question 7

What is the strength of construct validity in the perinatal ketamine model?

Answer 7

1. High

Question 8

What is the strength of predictive validity in the perinatal ketamine model?

Answer 8

3.Limited

Question 9

What are the face validity features of the perinatal ketamine model?

Answer 9

Ketamine causes offspring to produce comarable symptoms - behavioural changes of positive and negative symptoms
* social withdrawal
* memory and attention deficits
* altered emotional regulation

Question 10

What are the construct validity features of the perinatal Ketamine model?

Answer 10

Animal use post human observation of anesthetic ketamine use - Schizophrenic patients deteriorated, non Schizophrenic patients experienced negative and positive symptoms

Ketamine = NMDA receptor antagonist
* disrupts glutamatergic neurotransmission during critical development periods
* supports hypotheses of neurodevelopmental origins of condition in human

Question 11

What are the predictive validity features of the perinatal ketamine model?

Answer 11

• model responds to SOME antipsychotic treatments
• Translation to human therapeutic outcomes inconsistent and need further validation
• Many antipsychotics block NMDA receptors

Question 12

What are the strengths of the perinatal Ketamine model?

Answer 12

• simple
• inexpensive
• not time consuming
• Ketamine can exert anxiety-like behaviour, negative and positive symptoms
• Useful in studying the effects of manipulation that may be related to schizophrenia

Question 13

What are the limitations of the perinatal Ketamine model?

Answer 13

• cannot measure internal symptoms e.g. hallucinations
• inconsistent dosing across studies > sometimes divergent resutls (e.g some showed low doses improved memory, yet higher induces sedation) -> risk of misinterpretation
• there has been limited testing on how the ketamine induces these symptoms at various stages of development -> lack of bakcground
• Heavy focus on NMDA dysfunction only

Question 14

What are some suggestions for the perinatal Ketamine model?

Answer 14

• scan brains to observe which parts over-activate whilst schizophrenic to measure other symptoms e.g. fMRI
• Account for more factors such as Materal immune activation, genetic risk factors
• test a borader scope of cognitive enhancers, atypical or emerging antipsychotics and early interventions for better use in clinical settings