Using natural experiments and animal models to study causal hypotheses in relation to child mental health problems

Thapar, Anita ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3689-737X and Rutter, Michael 2015. Using natural experiments and animal models to study causal hypotheses in relation to child mental health problems. Thapar, Anita, Pine, Daniel S., Leckman, James F., Scott, Stephen, Snowling, Margaret J. and Taylor, Eric, eds. Rutter's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 143-162. (10.1002/9781118381953)

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Abstract

There is enormous interest in identifying causes of child psychopathology but considerable difficulty in knowing which risks are genuinely causal and in showing how they work. Why is it such a problem and how might we go about testing causal hypotheses? In this chapter we first discuss the threats that clinicians and researchers face in making causal inferences from traditional observational designs, explain why natural experiments are useful and what they are. The focus will be on the growing range of different types of natural experiment, with the emphasis on principles and strategy, assumptions and limitations. We then adopt a similar approach to animal models designed to study environmental and genetic risks with an emphasis on the concepts, principles and experimental strategies.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG) Medicine Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI)
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Natural experiments; etiology; risk factor; cause; environmental risk; epidemiology; animal models
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN:	9781118381960
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2022 10:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/78581

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