14th Annual Meeting of the Safety Pharmacology Society: Threading through peripheral and central nervous system presentations.

The 2014 Annual Meeting of the Safety Pharmacology Society discussed pathophysiological mechanisms and novel investigational approaches to assess drug safety. The plenary keynote reviewed past, present, and future research on Alzheimer's disease. Polysomnography tools can uncover drug-induced sleep disturbances. FDA examiners currently assess proconvulsive liabilities on a case-by-case basis due to the lack of official guidance. In contrast, abuse liability potential is determined according to established paradigms. The FDA guideline on opioid deterrent formulations was discussed. The mechanisms and treatments of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and diabetes-induced neuropathic pain were reviewed. There were salient points arising from the CNS presentations but from a pharmacological point of view we note in particular that safety pharmacology should move to routinely apply polysomnographic technologies to determine whether candidate drugs exert deleterious effects on sleep quality and architecture that may markedly decrease quality of life and impair cognitive functions, including alertness and reaction time.