Posted by Stan on February 9, 2003, at 22:41:02
In reply to Re: another question on gepirone » ShelliR, posted by SLS on February 9, 2003, at 20:10:22
Scott wrote:
<<<<<<<<I don't know about gepirone. My doctor in Princeton was performing a clinical trial with it two years ago. It would be great if it were to be a robust antidepressant, but my first thought is that it might be more effective as an anxiolytic monotherapeutically or as an augmentor of antidepressants.<<<<<<<<<<<
i haven't read all of the messages in this thread or visited that site with the "new drugs in development" articles, but it's worth noting that gepirone is very closely related to buspirone (Buspar). i think the only main difference is that it has greater selectivity for the 5HT1 serotonin receptor whilst having less effect on dopamine receptors. it's been known for some time that buspirone binds to the D2 family of dopamine receptors, but it took a long time for researchers to figure out exactly what it accomplishes there, if anything. i think they finally discovered that it acts as both an agonist and an antagonist at those sites, in ways that i don't understand and thus can't describe. buspar was always marketed as a "serotonin drug" and the dopamine business was not talked about much until well after it was introduced.anyway, at the risk of sounding cynical, my guess would be that patients who have found buspirone to be lacking in effectiveness for treating their anxiety/depression might find that gepirone falls short as well. that's just an opinion, and i haven't done much reading about either medication in recent years -- i just remember gepirone being talked about back in the mid-90's...
Stan
poster:Stan
thread:139984
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030208/msgs/140385.html