Buspirone And Anxiety Disorders: A Review With Pharmacological And Clinical Perspectives

The treatment of anxiety is one of the leading problems in medicine today. Buspirone, an azpirone derivative and a 5-HT-1A (5hydroxytryptamine-1A) partial agonist, is the first nonbenzodiazepine anxiolytic introduced into medicine for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). It has a strong affinity for the 5-HT-1A receptor and does not appear to interact at the benzodiazepine receptor complex. Buspirone's distinctive mechanism of action helps to avoid pharmacological properties ancillary to the treatment of anxiety and contributes towards an apparently superior safety profile with generally fewer and more tolerable adverse effects than benzodiazepines. This article provides a brief overview on the results of animals and clinical studies in which the potential for buspirone dependence or abuse and the effects of its withdrawal were assessed. The pharmacology of serotonin systems and its role in the management of anxiety, along with the review of the contemporary literature is also discussed.