BEHAVIORAL TERATOLOGY - AN INAPPROPRIATE TERM FOR SOME UNINTERPRETABLE EFFECTS

Since the thalidomide tragedy, the testing of new drugs on pregnant experimental animals has become a requirement in all countries. Many countries have recently introduced tests for subtle behavioral changes (in the absence of morphological damage). However Flaminio Cattabeni and Maria Pia Abbracchio argue that we do not yet know enough about the significance of these changes to make valid interpretations, or to extrapolate from animals to humans. They also propose that the term 'behavioral teratology' with its negative implications should be replaced by the more appropriate term 'chemical imprinting' to account also for chemicals inducing behavioral effects in animals which do not necessarily cause true neurological damage.