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Future Prospects for the Pharmacological Treatment of Anxiety

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Summary

Recent advances have been made in understanding the neurobiology of fear and anxiety, and elucidating the nature of the neurotransmitters involved in these processes. These findings are, at last, improving the prospect of alternatives to the benzodiazepines in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Selective serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have a wider profile of activity than the benzodiazepines across anxiety disorders, while candidate anxiolytics are being found among serotonin antagonists and partial agonists. Future prospects include agents that act selectively at receptors for cholecystokinin, neuropeptide Y, corticotrophin releasing factor and excitatory amino acids.

Further developments are also likely to stem from studies of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)A-receptor/benzodiazepine/chloride channel complex. Benzodiazepine receptor partial agonists have been developed that have more anxio-selective profiles than those of full agonists. Ligands of the neurosteroid binding site associated with this complex may, in future, be anxiolytic drug candidates.

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  1. Department of Pharmaceutical and Biological Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, England

    Sheila Handley

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Handley, S. Future Prospects for the Pharmacological Treatment of Anxiety. CNS Drugs 2, 397–414 (1994). https://doi.org/10.2165/00023210-199402050-00007

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