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Mechanistic vs Statistical Extrapolation in Preclinical Research in Psychiatry: Challenging the Received View

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Uncertainty in Pharmacology

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 338))

Abstract

This chapter questions the received view that in medical research extrapolation from animal models mainly consists in establishing mechanisms of human pathological states in organisms, thanks to a step by step comparison of causal pathways. Mechanistic extrapolation takes the form: (1) cause C brings out effect E in animal through causal pathway M, (2) M is similar in animals and humans, (3) therefore C will likely bring out E in humans. As the example of psychiatric research shows, such mechanistic extrapolation may be replaced by statistical extrapolation, an inference of the form: (1) An animal model A has been successful in predicting the effects E of drugs D1…Dn of a certain class; (2) A will be successful again in predicting the effects of a new drug Dn+1 of the same class. Statistical extrapolation relies on the predictive validity of a given animal model, without any knowledge of the mechanisms involved, on the sole ground of past successes of the model in predicting the effects of a class of drugs on their human target.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tours, INSERM U930, Tours, France

    Catherine Belzung

  2. University of Lille, LEM (UMR CNRS 9221), Lille, France

    Etienne Billette de Villemeur

  3. University of Bordeaux, Immunoconcept, Bordeaux, France

    Maël Lemoine

Authors
  1. Catherine Belzung
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  2. Etienne Billette de Villemeur
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  3. Maël Lemoine
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Catherine Belzung .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia

    Adam LaCaze

  2. Department of Biomedical Sciences and Public Health, Polytechnic University of the Marche, Ancona, Italy, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Munchen, LMU, Munich, Germany

    Barbara Osimani

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Belzung, C., Billette de Villemeur, E., Lemoine, M. (2020). Mechanistic vs Statistical Extrapolation in Preclinical Research in Psychiatry: Challenging the Received View. In: LaCaze, A., Osimani, B. (eds) Uncertainty in Pharmacology. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 338. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29179-2_4

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