Anxiety disorders are a group of psychiatric illnesses characterized by extreme or pathological anxiety, resulting in alterations in mood or emotional tone. They are the most frequent of all mental disorders encountered in clinical practice and include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias. Treatments for anxiety disorders are varied and depend on each individual case. In general, standard therapy includes benzodiazepines or tricyclic antidepressants targeting 5-hydroxytryptamine, dopamine, CABA, p-adrenoceptors, metabotropic glutamate, cholecystokinin, NMDA and opioid receptors, among others. However, anxiolytic therapy continues to be associated with serious and debilitating adverse effects. Researchers actively continue to search for effective treatments for anxiety disorders, with special attention given to the identification of novel targets for therapeutic intervention. This article presents those drug targets that are currently under active investigation for the treatment of anxiety disorders.
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