Authors: Schwartz, T. L.; Nihalani, N.; Simionescu, M.; Hopkins, G.

Source: Current Pharmaceutical Design, Volume 11, Number 2, January 2005 , pp. 255-263(9)

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

Abstract:

The original treatment indicated for those suffering from neurotic anxiety was to employ psychotherapy to facilitate changes in behavior and coping with stressful events. A spectrum of somatic treatments “from cathartics and emetics to opium and “strengthening tonics”, from atropine and digitalis to potassium bromide and chloral hydrate, from barbiturates to benzodiazepines”, to serotonergics, came to be used as well [1]. The Food and Drug Administration originally approved many gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) facilitating drugs since the 1960s for anxiety treatment. The 1980s evidenced the approval of a few serotonergic treatments that cornered the prescribing market and the front line of most treatment protocols. More recently, GABAergic drugs are making a return in the treatment of anxiety disorders. The following paper details the pharmacodynamic history of treating anxiety and also updates the reader as to the newer GABA-based approaches mentioned above.

Keywords: anxiety; gaba; serotonin; medication

Document Type: Review article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1381612053382214

Affiliations: 1: Assistant Professor, Psychiatry Department, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.

Publication date: 2005-01-01

More about this publication?

• Current Pharmaceutical Design publishes timely in-depth reviews covering all aspects of current research in rational drug design. Each issue is devoted to a single major therapeutic area. A Guest Editor who is an acknowledged authority in a therapeutic field has solicits for each issue comprehensive and timely reviews from leading researchers in the pharmaceutical industry and academia.
  
  Each thematic issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design covers all subject areas of major importance to modern drug design, including: medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, drug targets and disease mechanism.

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