Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 23, 2015

Pharmacological treatment forms part of much routine psychiatric practice. Many psychotropic drugs and psychotherapies are available for treating patients with mental disorders, but considerable numbers of individuals remain troubled by incapacitating symptoms even after a succession of evidence-based treatments. In this situation, many doctors consider prescribing a psychotropic medication outside the nar Read More

Introduction: New antipsychotics continuously arrive on the market, which thereby influences the approved and off-label prescribing (OLP) schemes. We aimed to identify the recent trends in the OLP of antipsychotics. We conducted a literature review based on three different populations: adult, pediatric, and elderly patients. Methods: A literature search was performed in the PubMed and ScienceDirect databas Read More

Background: Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is setting an increasing demand on health services. Although there are objective physical symptoms of cannabis dependence, there is no validated pharmacotherapy for CUD treatment, which is mainly based on behavioral interventions. The goal of such pharmacotherapies in CUD may be abstinence or consumption reduction. Besides, a growing literature tests the efficacy of differe Read More

There is a high rate of benzodiazepine use in the population. Benzodiazepines are used for multiple indications (anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal, muscular relaxation and anesthesia). Benzodiazepines are also addictive substances and a non-negligible fraction of regular users will develop dependence. There is currently no approved pharmacotherapy for benzodiazepine use disorder treatment and optimal strategi Read More

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common mental disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of emotional Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common mental disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of emotional lability, impulsivity, interpersonal difficulties, identity disturbances, and disturbed cognition. Traditional pharmacotherapies are effective in treating some of these core symptoms but have o Read More

Patients with severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are at increased risk of developing metabolic disorders including obesity, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. All of these comorbidities increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality. Different approaches, including diet and lifestyle modifications, behavioral therapy and switching antipsychotic agents, have been proposed to manage these Read More

This review paper discusses the central role of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in diverse physiological systems and functions and the therapeutic potential of the benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil (Ro 15- 1788) for a wide range of disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). Our group and others have studied the potential of flumazenil as a treatment for benzodiazepine dependence. A small but growing body of researc Read More

Although trazodone is approved and marketed in most countries worldwide for the sole treatment of Major Depressive Disorder, the use for this medication is very common for many other conditions, such as primary or secondary insomnia, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder. Other, not officially approved, uses of trazodone include: the treatment Read More

Bipolar disorders (BD) present with abnormalities of circadian rhythmicity and sleep homeostasis, even during phases of remission. These abnormalities are linked to the underlying neurobiology of genetic susceptibility to BD. Melatonin is a pineal gland secreted neurohormone that induces circadian-related and sleep-related responses. Exogenous melatonin has demonstrated efficacy in treating primary insomnia, d Read More

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopment disorder occurring during childhood. However, ADHD persists into adulthood in 45.7% of cases. The global prevalence of adult ADHD is estimated to 5.3%, with no difference between Europe and North America. ADHD is often comorbid with substance use disorder (SUD), with Odds Ratio ranges from 1.5 to 7.9, depending on the substance and the dependence l Read More

Almost 10% of the world’s population is affected by alcohol use disorder (AUD). The combination between psychosocial intervention and pharmacological treatment seems to be the most effective approach for patients affected by AUD. Among effective drugs useful in the treatment of AUD, GABAB-ergic medications have been tested with encouraging results (i.e. sodium oxybate, baclofen, gabapentin, pregabalin and Read More

Schizophrenia is a severe and frequent neuropsychiatric disorder. Despite antipsychotic medications, up to 30% of patients with schizophrenia still report disabling treatment-resistant symptoms. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been proposed as a novel method to alleviate such symptoms. Here, we review studies investigating the effects of tDCS on symptoms, cognition, brain activity and cortical plasticity in Read More

fMRI-based neurofeedback (fMRI-NF) is a non-invasive technique that allows participants to achieve control of their own brain activity using the real-time feedback of the activity (measured indirectly based on the BOLD signal) of a particular brain region or network. The feasibility of fMRI-NF in healthy subjects has been documented for a variety of brain areas and neural systems, and this technique has also been proposed for Read More

A variety of physiological and pharmacological factors are known to influence stress responses. Cold restraint stress (CRS) induced gastric ulcerogenesis in both the sexes but such ulceration was found to be markedly higher in male than in female rats. In males, CRS induced significant increases in both ulcer number and ulcer severity; while the females though showed a trend towards increase in both the parameters, t Read More

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) originates from the neoplastic changes in the esophageal epithelium. Barrett’s esophagus (BE) precedes EAC. In BE metaplasia, the normal stratified squamous epithelium is replaced by the intestinal columnar epithelium. Esophageal metaplasia might further progress to dysplasia, neoplasia, and EAC. The neoplastic progression from BE to EAC is accompanied with marked histological and mole Read More

The anti-carcinogenic effect of the new quinazolinone compound, named MMD, was tested on MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line. The synthesis of quinazolinone-based compounds attracted strong attention over the past few decades as an alternative mean to produce analogues of natural products. Quinazolinone compounds sharing the main principal core structures are currently introduced in the clinical trials and pharma Read More