Researchers once optimistic about the development of new drugs for psychiatric illnesses say that research has failed and the drug pipeline has dried up.
In the Feb. 23 issue of Science News, Laura Sanders quotes one psychiatrist who says that "Not a single drug designed to treat a psychiatric illness in a novel way has reached patients in more than 30 years." A neuroscientist tells her that "“Brain research is really hard. No one should be blamed for how hard this is. But we did get stuck.”
She begins her thorough assessment of the state of psychiatric drug research with an anecdote about a Lilly drug, LY2140023, that promised relief from the hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenia. "All signs pointed to success," she writes. The drug worked well in mice, and in small, preliminary human studies. But when it was given a phase III trial, the final, expensive step to demonstrate a drug's effectiveness, the drug failed. Those who took it were no better than those taking a placebo. Lilly lost millions of dollars, and people with schizophrenia lost what might have been a huge advance in treatment.
Sanders interviews a broad array of scientists, some more optimistic than others, reminds us how common psychiatric illnesses are and that most drugs now in use resulted from chance discoveries.
The story is discouraging, but it's an important story to tell.
-Paul Raeburn
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