Abstract
The development of medications used to treat psychiatric conditions has largely proceeded through serendipity, where a potential drug to treat mental illness is identified by chance. This approach is based on a limited understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of mental illness and brain disorders. Identification of novel neurotransmitter systems has allowed for new molecular-based approaches for drug development that identify specific receptor targets to treat a specific symptom. An example of this approach includes the development of suvorexant, which is a dual orexin receptor antagonist FDA approved in 2014 for the treatment of insomnia. This chapter will discuss challenges in psychiatric drug development; the importance of identifying discrete neurotransmitter systems that target a specific symptom, not a syndrome; the orexin pathway and targets within this pathway that can be used to modulate sleep; and a high-throughput approach to streamlining drug development.
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Schwasinger-Schmidt, T., Preskorn, S.H. (2023). Discovery of New Transmitter Systems and Hence New Drug Targets. In: Macaluso, M., Preskorn, S.H., Shelton, R.C. (eds) Drug Development in Psychiatry. Advances in Neurobiology, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21054-9_7
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