An anxiolytic is a medication or other intervention that reduces anxiety. This effect is in contrast to anxiogenic agents which increase anxiety. Anxiolytic medications are used for the treatment of anxiety disorders and their related psychological and physical symptoms.
Venlafaxine, sold under the brand name Effexor among others, is an antidepressant medication of the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) class. It is used to treat major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. Studies have shown that Venlafaxine improves quality of life. It may also be used for chronic pain. It is taken by mouth. It is also available as the salt venlafaxine besylate in an extended-release formulation.
Mirtazapine, sold under the brand name Remeron amongst others, is an atypical tetracyclic antidepressant, and as such is used primarily to treat depression. Its effects may take up to four weeks, but can also manifest as early as one to two weeks. It is often used in cases of depression complicated by anxiety or insomnia. The effectiveness of mirtazapine is comparable to other commonly prescribed antidepressants. It is taken by mouth.
Serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are a class of antidepressant medications used to treat major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), social phobia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), chronic neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), and menopausal symptoms. SNRIs are monoamine reuptake inhibitors; specifically, they inhibit the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters are thought to play an important role in mood regulation. SNRIs can be contrasted with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (NRIs), which act upon single neurotransmitters.
Noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressants (NaSSAs) are a class of psychiatric drugs used primarily as antidepressants. They act by antagonizing the α2-adrenergic receptor and certain serotonin receptors such as 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C, but also 5-HT3, 5-HT6, and/or 5-HT7 in some cases. By blocking α2-adrenergic autoreceptors and heteroreceptors, NaSSAs enhance adrenergic and serotonergic neurotransmission in the brain involved in mood regulation, notably 5-HT1A-mediated transmission. In addition, due to their blockade of certain serotonin receptors, serotonergic neurotransmission is not facilitated in unwanted areas, which prevents the incidence of many side effects often associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants; hence, in part, the "specific serotonergic" label of NaSSAs.
Trimipramine, sold under the brand name Surmontil among others, is a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) which is used to treat depression. It has also been used for its sedative, anxiolytic, and weak antipsychotic effects in the treatment of insomnia, anxiety disorders, and psychosis, respectively. The drug is described as an atypical or "second-generation" TCA because, unlike other TCAs, it seems to be a fairly weak monoamine reuptake inhibitor. Similarly to other TCAs however, trimipramine does have antihistamine, antiserotonergic, antiadrenergic, antidopaminergic, and anticholinergic activities.
Nefazodone, sold formerly under the brand names Serzone, Dutonin, and Nefadar among others, is an atypical antidepressant medication which is used in the treatment of depression and for other uses. Nefazodone is still available in the United States, but was withdrawn from other countries due to rare liver toxicity. The medication is taken by mouth.
Agomelatine, sold under the brand names Valdoxan and Thymanax, among others, is an atypical antidepressant most commonly used to treat major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. One review found that it is as effective as other antidepressants with similar discontinuation rates overall but fewer discontinuations due to side effects. Another review also found it was similarly effective to many other antidepressants.
Flibanserin, sold under the brand name Addyi, is a medication approved for the treatment of pre-menopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). The medication improves sexual desire, increases the number of satisfying sexual events, and decreases the distress associated with low sexual desire. The most common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep and dry mouth.
Desmetramadol (INN), also known as O-desmethyltramadol (O-DSMT), is an opioid analgesic and the main active metabolite of tramadol. Tramadol is demethylated by the liver enzyme CYP2D6 to desmetramadol in the same way as codeine, and so similarly to the variation in effects seen with codeine, individuals who have a less active form of CYP2D6 will tend to have reduced analgesic effects from tramadol. Because desmetramadol itself does not need to be metabolized to induce an analgesic effect, it can be used in individuals with low CYP2D6 activity unlike tramadol.
The 5-HT2C receptor is a subtype of the 5-HT2 receptor that binds the endogenous neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT). Like all 5-HT2 receptors, it is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is coupled to Gq/G11 and mediates excitatory neurotransmission. HTR2C denotes the human gene encoding for the receptor, that in humans is located on the X chromosome. As males have one copy of the gene and females have one of the two copies of the gene repressed, polymorphisms at this receptor can affect the two sexes to differing extent.
Serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitors (SARIs) are a class of drugs used mainly as antidepressants, but also as anxiolytics and hypnotics. They act by antagonizing serotonin receptors such as 5-HT2A and inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and/or dopamine. Additionally, most also antagonize α1-adrenergic receptors. The majority of the currently marketed SARIs belong to the phenylpiperazine class of compounds.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychological conditions.
Tedatioxetine is an experimental antidepressant that was discovered by scientists at Lundbeck; in 2007 Lundbeck and Takeda entered into a partnership that included tedatioxetine but was focused on another, more advanced Lundbeck drug candidate, vortioxetine.
The pharmacology of antidepressants is not entirely clear. The earliest and probably most widely accepted scientific theory of antidepressant action is the monoamine hypothesis, which states that depression is due to an imbalance of the monoamine neurotransmitters. It was originally proposed based on the observation that certain hydrazine anti-tuberculosis agents produce antidepressant effects, which was later linked to their inhibitory effects on monoamine oxidase, the enzyme that catalyses the breakdown of the monoamine neurotransmitters. All currently marketed antidepressants have the monoamine hypothesis as their theoretical basis, with the possible exception of agomelatine which acts on a dual melatonergic-serotonergic pathway. Despite the success of the monoamine hypothesis it has a number of limitations: for one, all monoaminergic antidepressants have a delayed onset of action of at least a week; and secondly, there are a sizeable portion (>40%) of depressed patients that do not adequately respond to monoaminergic antidepressants. Further evidence to the contrary of the monoamine hypothesis are the recent findings that a single intravenous infusion with ketamine, an antagonist of the NMDA receptor — a type of glutamate receptor — produces rapid, robust and sustained antidepressant effects. Monoamine precursor depletion also fails to alter mood. To overcome these flaws with the monoamine hypothesis a number of alternative hypotheses have been proposed, including the glutamate, neurogenic, epigenetic, cortisol hypersecretion and inflammatory hypotheses. Another hypothesis that has been proposed which would explain the delay is the hypothesis that monoamines don't directly influence mood, but influence emotional perception biases.
A serotonin modulator and stimulator (SMS), sometimes referred to more simply as a serotonin modulator, is a type of drug with a multimodal action specific to the serotonin neurotransmitter system. To be precise, SMSs simultaneously modulate one or more serotonin receptors and inhibit the reuptake of serotonin. The term was created to describe the mechanism of action of the serotonergic antidepressant vortioxetine, which acts as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI), agonist of the 5-HT1A receptor, and antagonist of the 5-HT3 and 5-HT7 receptors. However, it can also technically be applied to vilazodone, which is an antidepressant as well and acts as an SRI and 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or serotonin-specific re-uptake inhibitor (SSRIs), are a class of chemical compounds that have contributed to the major advances as antidepressants where they have revolutionised the treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders. The SSRIs are therapeutically useful in the treatment of panic disorder (PD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), and anorexia. There is also clinical evidence of SSRIs efficiency in the treatment of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and their ability to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Drugs and sexual desire is about sexual desire being manipulated through drugs from various approaches. Sexual desire is generated under the effects from sex hormones and microcircuits from brain regions. Neurotransmitters play essential roles in stimulating and inhibiting the processes that lead to libido production in both men and women. For instance, a positive stimulation is modulated by dopamine from the medial preoptic area in the hypothalamus and norepinephrine. At the same time, inhibition occurs when prolactin and serotonin are released for action.
