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Metabotropic Approaches to Anxiety

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Glutamate-based Therapies for Psychiatric Disorders

Part of the book series: Milestones in Drug Therapy ((MDT))

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Abstract

Current therapies for anxiety disorders neither fully serve the efficacy needs of patients nor are they free of adverse effects. Both preclinical and clinical findings have implicated the excitatory amino acid glutamate in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. While a number of review papers were published in recent years describing the anxiolytic effect of mGlu receptor ligands, in this short review we try to explain the mechanisms responsible for the antianxiety actions of specific mGlu receptors ligands, which have been reported to be potent anxiolytics. As the amygdala is the structure integrating the behaviors connected with fear and anxiety, the schema of amygdalar nuclei is shown together with the placement of mGu receptors in that structure. Furthermore, the anxiolytic effect of different mGlu receptor ligands in the context of their activity within specific amygdalar nuclei is proposed. The interactions between the anxiolytic effects of mGlu receptor ligands and other neurotransmitters involved in anxiety, particularly GABA and serotonin, will also be discussed, and the neuronal networks involved will be described in order to discuss the mechanism of the proposed anxiolytic effects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pharmacology PAS, Smetna 12, 31-343, Kraków, Poland

    Andrzej Pilc

  2. Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, 31-531, Kraków, Poland

    Andrzej Pilc

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  1. Joanna M. Wieronska
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  2. Gabriel Nowak
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Correspondence to Andrzej Pilc .

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  1. Div Pharmacotherapies & Medical Conseque, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Executive Boulevard 6001, Rockville, 20852, Maryland, USA

    Phil Skolnick

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Wieronska, J.M., Nowak, G., Pilc, A. (2010). Metabotropic Approaches to Anxiety. In: Skolnick, P. (eds) Glutamate-based Therapies for Psychiatric Disorders. Milestones in Drug Therapy. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0346-0241-9_9

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