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High hopes for new schizophrenia drugs

Drug trial hailed as first major breakthrough for 50 years.

Psychiatrists have welcomed the unveiling by a US drug company of the first new class of schizophrenia drugs since the 1950s.

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Posted by on September 02, 2007
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First advance since 1952??

What happened to all the "atypical" drugs supposed similar?

IF/when released just another bogus profit for Lilly.

Posted by: Marty Felker | September 3, 2007 11:06 PM

The news story contains some significant errors. First, current antipsychotics work by acting as antagonists at dopamine receptors, not by reducing the amount of dopamine. Second, the action of PCP was glutamate receptor antagonism, and the new drug described here acts as a glutamate receptor agonist. These are basic pharmacologic facts that a Nature reporter should get right, I'm afraid.

Posted by: Preston Calvert | September 4, 2007 03:52 AM

The new Lilly compound has a sophisticated pharmacology. It acts as an agonist at presynaptic receptors which results in a reduction in the amount of glutamate released presynaptically, thus effectively capping glutamate tone. Pharmacologists realised that the glutamate system could be a useful target for schizophrenia because disrupting it with PCP resulted in psychosis.

But it is true that antipsychotics don’t reduce absolute levels of dopamine – by acting as antagonists at post-synaptic receptors, they reduce the dopaminergic tone. Atypical antipyschotics also act at serotonergic receptors which may contribute to their better therapeutic profiles.

Posted by: alison abbott | September 4, 2007 10:54 AM

This is perhaps a minor issue, but I'm wondering on what grounds olanzapine is being described as the "best" anti-psychotic. My reading of CATIE was that olanzapine was the one patients stayed on the longest, not that there was any marked difference between them.
While it seems cynical to point it out, I can't help but notice that this is a new Lilly drug, as is olanzapine.

Posted by: Adams | September 7, 2007 07:22 AM

Geodon has a neutral weight gain profile.

Posted by: Jim Sherman | September 8, 2007 11:23 PM

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