Abstract: The present invention provides methods for evaluating the pharmacological efficacy of drugs or drug candidates in treatment of psychiatric diseases or disorders, particularly schizophrenia, and for predicting the efficacy of drugs or drug combinations indicated for treatment of both positive and negative symptoms of psychiatric diseases or disorders in an individual having such a disease or disorder. In both methods, the drugs or drug candidates evaluated are assessed for their ability to produce certain changes in the expression of specific genes in peripheral mononuclear cells in blood of psychiatric patients, which are similar to the changes obtained following treatments with reference drugs or drug combinations effective against both positive and negative symptoms of psychiatric diseases or disorders.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for identifying a compound or a combination of compounds having a pharmacological behavior that qualifies it as a candidate for clinical development of a drug for treatment of a psychiatric disease or disorder, preferably schizophrenia. According to this method, a candidate drug is assessed for its ability to produce a biochemical profile, in either or both in vitro and in vivo test systems, which is similar to a unique reference biochemical profile obtained following treatments with drugs or drug combinations effective against both positive and negative symptoms of psychiatric diseases or disorders.