Anxiolytic profiles.

The available data from animal and human studies on mechanisms postulated to be involved in the production and mediation of anxiety are reviewed. Effects of specific agents used to treat clinical anxiety, and/or studied in research on experimentally induced behaviors resembling clinical anxiety, are examined in terms of their implications for the etiology and management of these symptoms. In the search for an ideal anxiolytic (i.e., one which would selectively decrease anxiety without producing sedation, cognitive or psychomotor impairment, tolerance/dependence, untoward psychologic reactions, interactions with CNS depressants, or morbidity risk in overdose), recent research has focused on several nonbenzodiazepine substances. Results of these studies indicate that continued study and development of nonbenzodiazepine anxiolytics will facilitate achievement of optimum pharmacotherapeutic approaches to the management of clinical anxiety.