anxiety disorders, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder

The second installment in an exclusive Psychiatric News series on psychotropic drugs in the developmental pipeline takes a look at the future of medication therapy for people with depressive and anxiety disorders. While no innovative medications will be released in the short term, new treatment options are expected in the long term.

For those with depressive disorders, the reality of medication therapy alone is all too bleak. Research has shown that only about one-third of patients achieve symptomatic remission with the first antidepressant medication they try.

Even after trying two antidepressants, patients with depression still have only about a 50 percent chance of achieving remission (Psychiatric News, January 20, April 21). Clinical trial and case-study data suggest the overall odds of remission are roughly the same for those with anxiety disorders. However, for those with obsessive/compulsive disorder or panic disorder, success with medication therapy can be especially difficult to achieve.

Clearly, new treatment options are needed for patients with depressive or anxiety disorders. During 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, an estimated 21 million people were diagnosed with major depressive disorder in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan (the world's top three pharmaceutical markets), yet only half of all patients receive any treatment.

The prospect of large populations of patients with unmet medication needs is certainly ample reason for the world's research-oriented pharmaceutical companies to search for new drugs to fill the treatment gap. Treating depression and anxiety is big business (see box on facing page). Indeed, a large pool of pharmaceutical companies is working hard to bring new medications to the market.

Through an extensive review of documents from the Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies, industry analysts, and other sources, as well as interviews with numerous experts, Psychiatric News has identified nearly 60 medications in development to treat depressive and anxiety disorders. Many of those medications are being studied for both depression and anxiety, following the obvious success of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) in treating both. However, at least 20 drugs in development are being studied only as antidepressants, and about 10 are in development only as anxiolytics.

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© 2006 American Psychiatric Association

posted Saturday, 3 June 2006
tags: antidepressants  disorder  anxiety  depression