International Journal of Molecular Sciences
June 20, 2024
Hana Shafique, Julie C Demers, Julia Biesiada et al.
29 citations
NMDA receptor antagonists have potential for therapeutics in neurological and psychiatric diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse disorder (SUD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). (S)-ketamine was the first of a novel class of antidepressants, rapid-acting antidepressants, to be approved for medical use. The stereoisomer, (R)-ketamine...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
April 1, 2023
Jeffrey M. Witkin, Lalit K Golani, Jodi L Smith
18 citations
Deficiencies in standard of care antidepressants are driving novel drug discovery. A new age of antidepressant medications has emerged with the introduction of rapid-acting antidepressants with efficacy in treatment-resistant patients. The newly approved medicines and those in clinical development for major depressive disorder (MDD) are documented in this scoping review of newly approved and...
Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery
August 8, 2022
Andrzej Pilc, Agata Machaczka, Paweł Kawalec et al.
20 citations
INTRODUCTION: Major depressive disorder remains a prevalent world-wide health problem. Currently available antidepressant medications take weeks of dosing, do not produce antidepressant response in all patients, and have undesirable ancillary effects. AREAS COVERED: The present opinion piece focuses on the major inroads to the creation of new antidepressants. These include N-methyl-D-aspartate...
Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior
February 17, 2021
Jeffrey M. Witkin, Rok Cerne, A. Newman et al.
Interest in developing minimal side-effect NMDA receptor antagonists for neurological and psychiatric disorders has been energized by the recent introduction of esketamine into clinical practice for treatment-resistant depression. Structural analogs of dextromethorphan bind with low affinity to the NMDA receptor ion channel, have functional effects in vivo, and generally display a lower...
Advances in pharmacology (San Diego, Calif.)
2019
Jeffrey M. Witkin, Anna E Martin, Lalit K Golani et al.
71 citations
Conventional antidepressants (biogenic amine mechanisms) are not fully efficacious (e.g., symptoms remain after treatment, not all patients respond), produce effects only after weeks of daily dosing, and do not impact all disease symptoms. In contrast, a new class of antidepressants has been emerging since 2006 that has demonstrated rapid onset, large effect size, activity after only a single...