The Practice of Medicinal Chemistry
The Practice of Medicinal Chemistry
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DOI:
10.1111/j.1365-2125.2004.02080.x
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发表时间:
2004-05
影响因子:
3.4
通讯作者:
P. Jeffrey
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
P. Jeffrey
Psychiatric therapeutics originated with the advent of the barbiturates at the beginning of the twentieth century. With their broad spectrum of action these drugs dominated psychiatric and neurological therapeutics for over 50 years. The modern era of psychiatric therapeutics started in the 1950s with the serendipitous discovery of the first antidepressants (imipramine, iproniazide) and antipsychotics (chlorpromazine). For the next 30 years drugs available for prescribing by psychiatrists included mainly descendents of these early prototypes (tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors,‘classical’antipsychotics), together with the later discovered benzodiazepines for the treatment of anxiety disorders. The differences between individual drugs in each class were relatively minor, and the clinician’s choice was mainly guided by personal preference often based upon clinical habit. The situation has become more complex with the advent of some new classes of both antidepressants (selective inhibitors of either 5-hydroxytryptamine or noradrenaline re-uptake) and antipsychotics (‘atypical’antipsychotics). Although the new drugs have some considerable clinical advantages, they also create a significant financial burden for the Health Service. Not surprisingly, the prescribing clinician has become quite bewildered when making choices between ‘old and cheap’and ‘new and dear’drugs. The prescriber’s lot has been further complicated by the demise of the benzodiazepines as the treatment of choice for anxiety-related symptoms. Therefore, a real need has arisen to provide the prescriber with some guidelines. The Maudsley Guidelines have come about as a response to this need. They were initiated by the Drug and Therapeutics Committee of the Bethlem and