Novel Therapeutic Drugs for Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Schizophrenia, major depression, and anxiety disorders are the major psychiatric diseases. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that affects about 1 percent in the world. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, movement disorders, flat affect, social withdrawal, and cognitive deficits. Although the causes of this disease have not yet been determined, current treatments with antipsychotic drugs can eliminate the part of the symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Major depression is disabling and prevents a person from functioning normally. An episode of major depression may occur only once in a person's lifetime, but more often, it recurs throughout a person's life. A variety of treatments including antidepressant medications and short-term psychotherapies are proven effective for major depression. Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social phobia (social anxiety disorder). Anxiety disorders are treated with medications (e.g., antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, -adrenergic blockers), specific types (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy) of psychotherapy, or both.