Safety and Tolerability of Psychotropic Compounds

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Background

Psychotropic drugs have been a powerful therapeutic tool to fight against mental illnesses over the past 50-60 years. After the first phases of the search for efficacy, a new stage was opened in the improvement of drugs, seeking effectiveness and not just efficacy.

A special challenge with antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers has been avoiding relapses with maintained use while increasing safety and finding optimal tolerability in the medium and long-term. Unfortunately, after carrying out the clinical trials of short-term registration, manufacturers of psychotropic drugs cannot report possible adverse effects in the medium and long-term that are identified by the prescribers after the continued use in large samples of patients from all over the world. Such is the case of the neurological, metabolic or endocrinological effects of some antipsychotics such as tardive dyskinesia, metabolic syndrome or iatrogenic hyperprolactinemia. In the case of the use of serotonergic antidepressants, sexual dysfunction has been identified as the most frequent adverse effect in the medium and long-term, but unfortunately, this information about such high frequency has not been included in the data sheets.

The majority of safety and tolerability data have been obtained after several years of prescriptions and through cohort studies, case series or anecdotal communications. Pharmacovigilance is essential in the new era of psychotropic drugs. Tolerability and safety are crucial both to ensure compliance and the quality of life of patients and to avoid unexpected complications that can lead to serious events including unexpected death. The continued effort of clinicians to detect and describe new issues is essential in the advancement of research and in the challenge of discovering new molecules without adverse effects that are increasingly safer and more effective for patients suffering from mental illness.

In this Research Topic, we seek to highlight studies that focus on general safety and tolerability of antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood regulators, benzos and anti-Alzheimer compounds in order to increase the awareness of clinicians and patients about hidden or underestimated, but sometimes frequent, adverse events such as sexual, hyperprolactinaemic, cognitive, neurological, endocrinological or metabolic ones. We welcome original research articles, review articles, as well as clinical trials and case reports.

Keywords: safety, tolerability, antidepressant, antipsychotic, psychotropic

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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