News Release

Concern over clinical value of new mood disorder drugs

Separation of anxiety and depressive disorders: blind alley in psychopharmacology and classification of disease BMJ Volume 327, pp 158-60

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Recent changes to the classification of psychiatric disorders are encouraging pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs that are of questionable clinical value, argue researchers in this week's BMJ.

Since 1980, anxiety and depression have been split into separate diseases. Drug development has subsequently been tailored to new "niche" diagnoses such as panic, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The proliferation of niche diagnoses is liked by industry because it creates new licensing opportunities for phoney new drugs, but it has also led to a slowdown in production of drugs for the most common psychiatric disorder of mixed anxiety and depression, write the authors.

"We believe that the failure to advance the treatment of anxiety and depression is related to wrong classification," say the authors.

Companies must start developing drugs for mixed anxiety and depression and forget about dividing this giant illness segment into salami slices. Doctors could encourage this change by being more cynical about pitches from drug representatives claiming to have "the latest" medication to reduce anxiety, they conclude.

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