Psychopharmacology of anxiety

This overview deals first with the actual views on the neurobiology of anxiety, focusing on the limbic system and epileptiform neuronal activities. No single neurotransmitter system is likely to be involved exclusively in prevention or generation of anxiety and, hence, to be a target for drugs affecting anxiety specifically. Next, animal tests currently used to identify drugs effective in the treatment of anxiety, in particular specific forms of anxiety, are discussed. Drugs currently used in the treatment of anxiety as well as anxiogenic agents and their mechanisms of action are compared. The future development in the field of anxiety-reducing drugs is seen in partial agonists of benzodiazepine receptors. Specific ligands of the various 5-HT receptors may replace benzodiazepine receptor ligands in specific forms of anxiety disorders, but do not seem to represent general alternatives, in particular, when an immediate attenuation of anxiety is required.