[Research in Psychopharmacology]

Research in psychopharmacology began around 1950 with the description of antipsychotic effect of chlorpromazine followed shortly later with the mechanism of action of antidepressants. In these initial phases, pharmacy industry was open to knowledge and made efforts tending to the development to new drugs that showed efficacy and good safety profiles. In parallel development of theories attempting to find the etiology of psychiatric disorders acquired impulse. This review summarizes the new drugs for the treatment of psychiatric disorders currently under development and also presents a short list of the main biomarkers proposed for the diagnosis or the comprehension of the etiopathogeny in Psychiatry. Several questions arose when brain structures, biochemical pathways, proteins and genes began to be identified in the search for a better comprehension of etiopathogeny of mental disorders. Pharmaceutical industry virtually moved away from this field of research. Epistemological and methodological obstacles in psychopharmacological investigation together with the lack of priority given by industry to this field allow us to predict few advances for the treatment in Psychiatry in the short term.