“We are researching the use of antidepressants during pregnancy and how it affects offspring. We want to see if the brains of newborns develop differently, as we know that the behavior is different. We would like to investigate the underlying causes of this. Research in pregnant women is, of course, not ethically possible, and we don’t want to do that either, because we would have to treat healthy pregnant women with antidepressants. There is research in humans, where studies are conducted at young and later ages, but that doesn’t progress quickly. If you want to look at the underlying mechanisms in the body, you really need the brain and have to specifically study it. So that simply can’t be done in humans. It is also important to mention that when testing new medications, it is still mandatory to first test the safety of the medication in laboratory animals. This is especially important when it comes to the next generation.
We do a lot of research on behavior in rats. Specifically, social behavior, which includes play behavior, social interactions, sexual behavior, aggression, but also affective behavior (anxiety/depression). Additionally, we look at cognition, learning, and memory.
We always look at how many animals are minimally needed to demonstrate something and do not use more than necessary. You also don’t want to use too few animals, because then you risk that your research yields nothing. We look for possibilities to approach things differently so that the research becomes less stressful for the rats. For example, we have developed a method where rats no longer have to sit still when we inject them but can continue to move freely. This is an example of refinement. Because we mainly research behavior and changes in the brain, we cannot replace animal experiments with an alternative, but where research allows, it is important to use alternatives.”