Serotonin agents in anxiety.

The side effects and unwanted or unnecessary ancillary pharmacological properties of benzodiazepine anxiolytic drugs resulted in a continuing search for new agents with improved profiles of activity. Buspirone was the first novel drug to emerge from this search in almost thirty years. Investigations into its mechanism of action revealed a key role for serotonin in the pharmacotherapy of anxiety. A variety of serotonergic agents are now in preclinical and clinical development as anxiolytics, including 5-HT1A partial agonists, 5-HT2 antagonists, and 5-HT3 antagonists. In addition to the new drugs which will be developed as a consequence of these investigations, their clinical efficacy will prompt the development of new animal models of psychopathology, leading us ever closer to a full understanding of the neurobiological substrates of anxiety. In addition, deployment of these new agents in the armamentaria of the clinician and the basic scientist will lead to new insights into the treatment of other disorders and the biochemical mechanisms by which the effects of these drugs are obtained.