Abstract
Welcome to the first edition of Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology, published by Sage under the auspices of the British Association for Psychopharmacology. Clinical psychopharmacology is a relatively new specialism compared with many other areas of medicine. It could be said that the specialism is not even yet 60 years old: chlorpromazine was not used in psychiatry until 1952 and not licensed until 1955. Nonetheless, psychopharmacology has developed and diversified rapidly and it continues to do so, such that we now have numerous classes of effective psychotropic drugs.
Despite this progress, there is still much to be done as many conditions are only partially responsive to current available drugs. In years to come, we will understand better the actions of the drugs we have now and see the introduction of new drugs with novel modes of action. Given the avalanche of data being generated in all fields of medicine, not least in clinical psychopharmacology, we have developed this new journal which aims to highlight and summarize new developments in psychopharmacology-based therapeutics.
We offer something different from most other journals – rapid review and publication of articles dealing with new findings or understanding in the use of psychotropic drugs. Our aim is to bring quickly into the public domain information that is directly applicable to clinical practice either now or in the near future. We are determined that the rapidity with which papers are published will not diminish their scientific validity. The journal is fortunate to have Associate Editors and an Editorial Board of the highest calibre. It will be these learned researchers who will largely determine suitability for publication.
In this first issue we have three articles that are broadly representative of the type and quality of paper we hope to publish in coming editions. In a comprehensive review, James Stone describes the function of the glutamate system as it relates to psychosis and other conditions and examines the prospects for the improved treatment of schizophrenia with glutamatergic agents. Eromona Whiskey and colleagues report their experience of using the antipsychotic melperone in patients unresponsive to, or unsuitable for, clozapine. Intriguingly, melperone seemed to be effective in a small minority of patients, but it was not clear how such responsive patients might be identified without actually giving melperone itself. Also in this first issue is a representative case study and literature review by Sachin Patel and Matthew Allin that examines the well known associations between clozapine and diabetes and the less well-known link to pneumonia.
Each of these papers furthers our understanding of drug treatment in mental illness. So, we start as we mean to go on – advancing therapeutics in psychopharmacology.