Research on anxiety and anxiety disorders is undergoing a paradigmatic transformation as disparate areas of psychiatric nosology, epidemiology, pharmacology and cognitive neuroscience converge towards an integrated understanding of the pathophysiology of these disorders.
In the last century, the basic treatment indicated for patients with anxiety disorders was to employ psychotherapy to facilitate changes in behaviour and develop ways of coping with stressful life events. A wide spectrum of somatic treatments from catharsis and emetics to opium and strengthening tonics, from atropine and digitalis to potassium bromide and chloral hydrate, from benzodiazepines to antidepressants came to be used as well. Systematic studies of antidepressants revealed that these drugs have antipanic properties independent of their antidepressive effects. This finding stirred a new classification of anxiety disorders, which is reflected in the current classification systems, such as the international classification of diseases (ICD) published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Anxiety has evolved as a defensive mechanism disposing the individual to recognize changes. As a warning signal, anxiety has life-saving qualities, and a species without appropriate anxiety would not survive. While normal anxiety is beneficial to co-ordinate response patterns in a threatening situation, pathological anxiety has many facets that can burden an individual substantially and warrants therapeutic intervention. The new classification of anxiety disorders encouraged basic and clinical research on the pathophysiology and treatment of pathological anxiety. Using newly developed methods and techniques, we are now beginning to understand the molecular mechanisms of anxiety, anxiety disorders and their treatment. In parallel, new drug targets have been generated and the first clinical studies with new compounds have been started.
Wikipedia: World Health Organization (WHO)
Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, Vol. 169
Anxiety and Anxiolytic Drugs (2004)
