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Repurposing Existing Drugs for the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Olha Strilbytska1, Oleh Lushchak1,2,3
1Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Vasyl Stefanyk Carpathian National University, 57 Shevchenko Str., Ivano-Frankivsk, 76018, Ukraine.
Chronic Stress (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)
|October 30, 2025
Summary
Drug repurposing offers a promising strategy for developing new treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This approach leverages existing drugs with known safety profiles to accelerate therapy development for PTSD.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry and Pharmacology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a growing global mental health concern.
- Current PTSD treatments face challenges due to the disorder's complexity and limited therapeutic options.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore drug repurposing as a strategy for accelerating PTSD treatment development.
- To summarize existing repurposed drugs and discuss the potential of novel candidates for PTSD.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and summary of studies on drug repurposing for PTSD.
- Discussion of specific drug classes with potential for PTSD treatment, including alpha-adrenergic modulators, cannabinoids, glutamatergic modulators, and antipsychotics.
Main Results:
- Drug repurposing identifies compounds with established safety and efficacy for new indications.
- Several drug classes show potential for alleviating PTSD symptoms, offering a faster route to clinical trials.
Conclusions:
- Drug repurposing presents a viable and efficient strategy to expedite the development of effective PTSD therapies.
- Further investigation into potential drawbacks and comprehensive discussion of negative aspects are necessary.
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