Seeing how popular antidepressant medications are, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), it’s a wonder that pharmaceutical companies have cut back on researching and developing them. 

A recent report called the development of psychiatric drugs “slow and disappointing.”

Paul SM, Potter WZ. Finding new and better treatments for psychiatric disorders. Neuropsychopharmacol. 2024;49(1):3-9.

But research also shows there’s an urgent need for new medications for psychiatric disorders.

Tricklebank MD, Robbins TW, Simmons C, et al. Time to re-engage psychiatric drug discovery by strengthening confidence in preclinical psychopharmacology. Psychopharmacology. 2021;238(6):1417-1436.

Why? Mental illness is expected to become the leading cause of disability by 2030. 

So, what exactly is going on? 

According to Alex Dimitriu, MD, a double board-certified psychiatrist and sleep medicine physician and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine, the mental health space has been stuck for a while.

“Aside from ketamine, most recently, and drugs like Auvelity, we have not really seen any major breakthroughs since SSRIs,” Dr. Dimitriu tells MDLinx. 

According to Ozan Toy, MD, MPH, chief medical officer at Telapsychiatry in New Jersey, developing psychiatric drugs can be a difficult task for scientists because there's so much we don’t yet understand about the brain.

“Our understanding of its function is more limited than other organ systems,” Dr. Toy tells MDLinx. 

The future of psychotropic drug development

Nevertheless, Dr. Dimitriu remains optimistic about psychotropic drug development. Mental health disorders impact so many people, especially in the United States, making for a huge market, he says.

There’s a lot to be discovered, and future research will likely open up new pathways for drug development.

Dr. Dimitriu compares the mental health drug pipeline to the weight loss industry. Weight loss drugs stalled out for years and were in a similar doldrums. “Then we saw the Ozempic explosion,” he says. 

Might the same happen with psychiatric drugs? It’s on the horizon, research suggests.

Paul SM, Potter WZ. Finding new and better treatments for psychiatric disorders. Neuropsychopharmacol. 2024;49(1):3-9.

That's because there’s finally renewed interest and excitement around investing in the finances, research, and resources needed to create novel drugs for increasingly common psychiatric illnesses.