title: Emerging drugs for the treatment of anxiety.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent and disabling psychiatric disorders in the United States and worldwide. Basic research has provided critical insights into the mechanism regulating fear behavior in animals and a host of animal models have been developed in order to screen compounds for anxiolytic properties. Despite this progress, no mechanistically novel agents for the treatment of anxiety have come to market in more than two decades.
  
  
  METHODS
  The current review will provide a critical summary of current pharmacological approaches to the treatment of anxiety and will examine the pharmacotherapeutic pipeline for treatments in development. Anxiety and related disorders considered herein include panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. The glutamate, neuropeptide and endocannabinoid systems show particular promise as future targets for novel drug development.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the face of an ever-growing understanding of fear-related behavior, the field awaits the translation of this research into mechanistically novel treatments. Obstacles will be overcome through close collaboration between basic and clinical researchers with the goal of aligning valid endophenotypes of human anxiety disorders with improved animal models. Novel approaches are needed to move basic discoveries into new, more effective treatments for our patients.
authors.affiliation: a 1 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Department of Psychiatry, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program , One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, NY 10029, USA +1 212 241 7574 ; +1 212 241 3354 ; james.murrough@mssm.edu.
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Murrough
authors.forename: Sahab
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yaqubi
authors.forename: Sehrish
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sayed
authors.forename: Dennis S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Charney
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015195:Drug Design; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy
chemical_list: D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents
keywords: anxiety; anxiolytic; clinical trial; endocannabinoid; glutamate; neuropeptide; panic disorder; posttraumatic stress disorder