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The British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP) represents about 1000 clinical and non-clinical members who work in academia, industry and the health service. The BAP supports the effort to find new ways of treating debilitating (sometimes life-threatening) psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and dementia. Members of the BAP are dedicated to ensuring best practice in psychiatry and acknowledge that this requires the evaluation of existing medicines as well as the discovery and developments of new ones. Research using animals has made, and continues to make, a vital contribution to this process. Psychopharmacology research recruits a wide range of techniques including those using isolated cells and tissues, as well as experiments on humans. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to understand how drugs affect whole animal physiology and behaviour. To this end, experiments using animals make an essential and unavoidable contribution to the development of new medicines and the discovery of the therapeutic targets of the future. Research
in the UK that involves animals is stringently regulated by the
Home Office and requires the authorisation of a Project Licence,
granted by the Home Secretary. Criteria for granting Project Licences
are defined in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Project
Licences are required for each specific programme of research and
are awarded only when the research objectives cannot be achieved
by using in vitro alternatives or humans and when the benefits
of the research justify the use of animals, taking into account
the experiences of the animals concerned. Applicants for a licence
must provide assurance that the research will use the minimum number
of animals needed to reach a valid conclusion. They must also confirm
that every effort is made to minimise any distress experienced by
the animals. Scientists are licensed to carry out experiments on
animals only when they have provided evidence that they are aware
of their responsibility to optimise animal welfare in their research
and that they have received appropriate training. All applications
for a Project Licence are scrutinised by a local ethical review
panel that includes lay members as well as researchers and named
animal care and welfare officers. The majority of experiments are
carried out on rodents (rats and mice). |
