Chronic pain is a maladaptive neurological disease that remains a major health problem. A deepening of our knowledge on mechanisms that cause pain is a prerequisite to developing novel treatments. A large variety of animal models of pain has been developed that recapitulate the diverse symptoms of different pain pathologies. These models reproduce different pain phenotypes and remain necessary to examine the multidimensional aspects of pain and understand the cellular and molecular basis underlying pain conditions.

In this review, we propose an overview of animal models, from simple organisms to rodents and non-human primates and the specific traits of pain pathologies they model. We present the main behavioral tests for assessing pain and investing the underpinning mechanisms of chronic pathological pain. The validity of animal models is analysed based on their ability to mimic human clinical diseases and to predict treatment outcomes. Refine characterization of pathological phenotypes also requires to consider pain globally using specific procedures dedicated to study emotional comorbidities of pain. We discuss the limitations of pain models when research findings fail to be translated from animal models to human clinics. But we also point to some recent successes in analgesic drug development that highlight strategies for improving the predictive validity of animal models of pain. Finally, we emphasize the importance of using assortments of preclinical pain models to identify pain subtype mechanisms, and to foster the development of better analgesics.

慢性疼痛是适应不良的神经系统疾病，仍然是主要的健康问题。加深我们对引起疼痛的机制的了解是开发新疗法的先决条件。已经开发了各种各样的疼痛动物模型，它们概括了不同疼痛病理的各种症状。这些模型重现了不同的疼痛表型，仍然是检查疼痛的多维方面并了解疼痛状况的细胞和分子基础所必需的。

在这篇综述中，我们提出了动物模型的概述，从简单的生物到啮齿动物和非人类灵长类动物，以及它们建模的疼痛病理学的特定特征。我们介绍了主要的行为测试，用于评估疼痛和投资慢性病理性疼痛的基础机制。根据动物模型模仿人类临床疾病并预测治疗结果的能力，分析其有效性。精细化病理表型的表征还需要使用专门的方法研究疼痛的情感合并症，以全面考虑疼痛。当研究结果未能从动物模型转化为人类诊所时，我们将讨论疼痛模型的局限性。但是，我们还指出了止痛药开发方面的一些最新成就，这些成就突出了改善疼痛动物模型的预测有效性的策略。最后，我们强调使用各种临床前疼痛模型来识别疼痛亚型机制并促进更好的止痛药开发的重要性。