title: Forty years of neurotransmitters: a personal account.
abstract: All drugs in psychiatry act by influences on neurotransmitter systems. Hence, an appreciation of neurotransmitter disposition helps clarify our understanding of therapeutic actions as well as adverse effects of psychotropic drugs. Moreover, understanding the nuances of neurotransmitters facilitates efforts to develop novel agents. Currently available psychoactive drugs exert their effects through 3 or 4 of the longest-known neurotransmitters. Over the past few decades, up to 100 novel neurotransmitter candidates have been identified, each of them as interesting as traditional biogenic amines. It is likely that totally new classes of therapeutic agents will emerge based on these transmitter molecules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 725 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. ssnyder@bs.jhmi.edu
authors.forename: Solomon H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Snyder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000266:history* / Q000502:physiology; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000266:history* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs