title: What can triumphs and tribulations from drug research in Alzheimer's disease tell us about the development of psychotropic drugs in general?
abstract: Drug development for psychiatric disorders has almost ground to a halt. Some newer drugs are better tolerated or safer than older ones, but none is more effective. Years of failure in preventing or delaying the onset of illness, ameliorating symptoms, lowering suicide rates, or improving quality of life has put the commercial investments that had previously funded drug development at risk. To promote the development of psychiatric drugs with greater efficacy, we need to improve the way we bring potentially beneficial drugs to market. We need to acknowledge, as has been done in other specialties, that people differ in their response to drugs. Psychiatric drug research needs to be grounded in a better understanding of molecular brain mechanisms, neural circuits, and their relations to clinical disease. With this understanding, drugs need to be more precisely directed at specific brain targets. In psychiatric drug development, government, industry, regulatory bodies, and academia should realign to ensure medical science is used in the best interests of patients.
authors.affiliation: Aristea Translational Medicine, Park City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Mary V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Seeman
authors.affiliation: Drug Design and Development Section, Translational Gerontology Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: greign@mail.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Nigel H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Greig
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Neuroscience Research Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Debomoy K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Lahiri
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy*; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs