Behavioral Medicine Introduction: Introduction

An animal’s “behavior” is the product of its genetic composition, the environment in which the animal functions, and the animal’s experience (ie, what it has learned given its previous genetic × environment interaction). While this section focuses primarily on abnormal behavior of domestic animals, the extent to which an animal’s behavior is abnormal is defined by its deviation from “normal.” For each group of domestic animals, normal social and group behavior is outlined and followed by a listing of the common behavioral disorders and treatment approaches.

In behavioral medicine, diagnoses are not diseases; correlation is not causality. Behavioral conditions for which there is putative etiologic and pathophysiologic heterogeneity (multifactorial disorders) are complex (Table: Levels of “Causality” to Consider in Behavioral Diagnosis).

Phenotypic (functional, phenomenologic) diagnoses are open to various mechanistic bases of all subsequent levels. Some of these more reductionistic levels can be tested using treatment (eg, specific pharmacologic agents), but few phenotypic diagnoses can be specifically tested using behavior modification. Most of the behavioral diagnoses for farm animals are descriptive and relatively nonspecific. Behavioral diagnoses for dogs and cats have been more fully developed and are discussed in the context of the “necessary and sufficient” conditions (or criteria) for diagnosis. The use of “necessary and sufficient” conditions, using the terms as they are used in logical and mathematical applications, is a refinement over descriptive definitions. These conditions act as qualitative, and potentially quantitative, exclusion criteria, allowing for uniform and unambiguous assessment of aberrant, abnormal, and undesirable behaviors.

A necessary condition is one that must be present for the listed diagnosis to be made. A sufficient condition is one that can stand alone to singularly identify the condition. Sufficiency is an outcome of knowledge: as more becomes known about the genetics, molecular response, neurochemistry, and neuroanatomy of any condition and its behavioral correlates, a sufficient condition can be defined more succinctly and accurately. Definition of necessary and sufficient conditions is not synonymous with a compendium of signs associated with the behavior. The number of signs present and their intensity may be a gauge for the severity of the condition, or act as a flag when there can be variable, nonoverlapping presentations of the same condition.