Where is the room for improvement in the drug treatment of depression and anxiety?

摘要

Consider, for a moment, the properties of the 'ideal' drug for treating patients with recurrent unipolar depression or anxiety disorders. Such a drug would be effective in all disorders, across all symptom domains, across the range of severity, in achieving remission, in preventing relapse and in treating comorbid conditions, and would have a rapid onset of action and be cost-effective in clinical practice. In addition, it would be suitable for once-daily dosage, have minimal adverse effects, cause minimal interference with daily life, would not be associated with the development of tolerance during use or discontinuation symptoms once treatment is stopped, would be suitable for use in physically ill patients and free from interactions with other medications, and be safe in overdose (Baldwin and Thompson, 2003).