[The concepts and conceptual models of psychopharmacology]

The present approaches to the testing and use of drugs, psychotropic ones in particular, are characterized by inadequate efficiency: the ratio of agents successfully undergone preclinical, clinical, and postclinical tests is 100:5:1 and in clinical psychopharmacotherapy, the proportion of drug-resistant patients and the incidence of side effects are rather high. The groundless supposition that interspecies- and intraspecies-specific sensitivity to drugs is equal may explain this notion, which contradicts the concept of the biochemical stability of species and to the principle of molecular economy in species-specific ratios. To enhance the efficiency of tests and pharmacotherapy, it is suggested that the existing conceptual model "concentration-effect" should be replaced by the extended one "sensitivity-concentration-effect" as it is more scientifically substantiated. Increases in the efficiency of psychopharmacotherapy may be, among other things, reached by individually predicting the most effective psychotropic agents with clinical, paraclinical, pharmacokinetic, and other predictors.