SCIENTISTS at the Parke Davis Research Unit in Cambridge have developed
a new drug which they believe could help to treat anxiety.
At a meeting in Cambridge last weekend, researchers announced that the
drug – which is code-named CI-988 – was effective in treating animal models
of anxiety. Unlike drugs such as Valium, they explained, CI-988 did not
cause sedation.
The new drug is chemically very different from other tranquillisers
and works in a completely different way. It blocks the effects of CCK, a
peptide molecule which acts as a chemical messenger between cells in some
parts of the brain. Scientists had not previously known that CCK was involved
in anxiety.
The scientists at Parke Davis also hope that CI-988 may be useful in
helping addicts withdraw from drugs such as alcohol and nicotine.
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