Toward a novel endogenous anxiolytic factor, fibroblast growth factor 2.

摘要

Among the 26% of Americans that showed a 12-month prevalence for a DSM-IV psychiatric disorder in 2005, most suffered from anxiety disorders (18.1 %), followed by mood disorders at 9.5% (1). Therefore, anxiety disorders affect nearly one-fifth of the population directly in their lifetime, albeit with substantial variation in range of affliction. Despite the current availability of numerous pharmaceutical anxiolytic treatments, most exert only a temporary relief on acute symptomatology, whereas few traditional anxiolytic agents promote long-term alleviation of core symptoms such as the cognitive aspects of anxiety disorders. Although a considerable amount of work has explored the role of 7-aminobutyric acid and gamma-aminobutyric acid modulators in anxiety, more recently, pharmaceutical "antidepressant" treatments (ADTs) such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been demonstrated as somewhat successful in treating anxiety disorders. Despite their indisputable contributions to psychiatric therapeutics, ADTs have considerable limitations clinically, such as the prolonged latency (3-5 weeks of chronic administration) until core symptom relief is observed. Thus, there is an urgent need to define the neural systems that mediate anxiety and understand its patho-physiology, which would allow us to explore new treatment avenues.