Anxiogenics

Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class and is the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance globally. It is mainly used for its eugeroic (wakefulness promoting), ergogenic (physical performance-enhancing), or nootropic (cognitive-enhancing) properties; it is also used recreationally or in social settings. Caffeine acts by blocking the binding of adenosine at a number of adenosine receptor types, inhibiting the centrally depressant effects of adenosine and enhancing the release of acetylcholine. Caffeine has a three-dimensional structure similar to

Cholecystokinin (CCK or CCK-PZ; from Greek chole, "bile"; cysto, "sac"; kinin, "move"; hence, move the bile-sac (gallbladder)) is a peptide hormone of the gastrointestinal system responsible for stimulating the digestion of fat and protein. Cholecystokinin, formerly called pancreozymin, is synthesized and secreted by enteroendocrine cells in the duodenum, the first segment of the small intestine. Its presence causes the release of pancreatic juice from the pancreas and bile from the gallbladder.

thumb|A vial of flumazenil solution for injection

Yohimbine, also known as quebrachine, is an indole alkaloid derived from the bark of the African tree Pausinystalia johimbe (yohimbe) and from the bark of the unrelated South American tree Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco. It is a veterinary drug used to reverse xylazine.

group of stereoisomers

Tetrabenazine is a drug for the symptomatic treatment of hyperkinetic movement disorders. It is sold under the brand names Nitoman and Xenazine among others. On August 15, 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of tetrabenazine to treat chorea associated with Huntington's disease. Although other drugs had been used "off-label", tetrabenazine was the first approved treatment for Huntington's disease in the United States. The compound has been known since the 1950s.

Rimonabant (also known as SR141716; trade names Acomplia, Zimulti) is an anorectic antiobesity drug approved in Europe in 2006 but was withdrawn worldwide in 2008 due to serious neurological and psychiatric side effects; it was never approved in the United States. Rimonabant is an inverse agonist for the cannabinoid receptor CB1 and was first-in-class.

Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is a stimulant of the cathinone class that acts as a norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitor (NDRI).

Pentylenetetrazol (PTZ), also known as pentylenetetrazole, pentetrazol (INN), and pentamethylenetetrazol, is a drug formerly used as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant. High doses cause convulsions, as discovered by Hungarian-American neurologist and psychiatrist Ladislas J. Meduna in 1934. It has been used in convulsive therapy, and was found to be effective in treating depression, but side effects, such as uncontrolled seizures, were difficult to avoid. In 1939, pentylenetetrazol was replaced by electroconvulsive therapy, which is easier to administer, as the preferred method for induci

'''meta-Chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP''') is a psychoactive drug of the phenylpiperazine class. It was initially developed in the late-1970s and used in scientific research before being sold as a designer drug in the mid-2000s. It has been detected in pills touted as legal alternatives to illicit stimulants in New Zealand and pills sold as "ecstasy" in Europe and the United States.

ZK-93426 (ethyl-5-isopropoxy-4-methyl-β-carboline-3-carboxylate) is a drug from the β-carboline family. It acts as a weak partial inverse agonist of benzodiazepine receptors, meaning that it causes the opposite effects to the benzodiazepine class of drugs and has anxiogenic properties, although unlike most benzodiazepine antagonists it is not a convulsant and actually has weak anticonvulsant effects. In human tests it produced alertness, restlessness and feelings of apprehension, and reversed the effect of the benzodiazepine lormetazepam. It was also shown to produce nootropic effects and incr

FG-7142 (ZK-31906) is a drug of the β-carboline family which acts as a partial inverse agonist at the benzodiazepine allosteric site of the GABAA receptor. It has anorectic, anxiogenic and pro-convulsant effects. It also increases release of acetylcholine and noradrenaline, and improves memory retention in animal studies.

DMCM (methyl 6,7-dimethoxy-4-ethyl-β-carboline-3-carboxylate) is a drug from the β-carboline family that induces anxiety and convulsions by acting as a negative allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors — functionally opposite to benzodiazepines and related drugs which are positive allosteric modulators — and is used in scientific research for these properties to test new anxiolytic and anticonvulsant medications, respectively. It has also been shown to produce analgesic effects in animals, which is thought to be the drug's induced panic reducing the perception of pain.

Carbogen, also called '''Meduna's Mixture''' after its inventor Ladislas Meduna, is a mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen gas. Meduna's original formula was 30% CO2 and 70% oxygen, but the term carbogen can refer to any mixture of these two gases, from 1.5% to 50% CO2. It is a hallucinogen.

Sarmazenil (Ro15-3505) is a drug from the benzodiazepine family. It acts as a partial inverse agonist of benzodiazepine receptors, meaning that it causes the opposite effects to most benzodiazepine drugs, and instead acts as an anxiogenic and convulsant. It is used in veterinary medicine to reverse the effects of benzodiazepine sedative drugs in order to rapidly re-awaken anesthetized animals.

An anxiogenic or panicogenic substance is one that causes anxiety. This effect is in contrast to anxiolytic agents, which inhibits anxiety. Together these categories of psychoactive compounds may be referred to as anxiotropic compounds.

Cholecystokinin tetrapeptide (CCK-4, tetragastrin, Trp-Met-Asp-Phe-NH2) is a peptide fragment derived from the larger peptide hormone cholecystokinin. Unlike cholecystokin which has a variety of roles in the gastrointestinal system as well as central nervous system effects, CCK-4 acts primarily in the brain as an anxiogenic, although it does retain some GI effects, but not as much as CCK-8 or the full length polypeptide CCK-58.

LY-293284, also known as 4,α-methylene-5-acetyl-DPT, is a research chemical developed by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and used for scientific studies. It acts as a potent and selective 5-HT1A receptor full agonist. It was derived through structural simplification of the ergoline based psychedelic LSD, but is far more selective for 5-HT1A with over 1000× selectivity over other serotonin receptor subtypes and other targets. It has anxiogenic effects in animal studies.

L-655,708 (FG-8094) is a nootropic drug invented in 1996 by a team working for Merck, Sharp and Dohme, that was the first compound developed which acts as a subtype-selective inverse agonist at the α5 subtype of the benzodiazepine binding site on the GABAA receptor. It acts as an inverse agonist at the α1, α2, α3 and α5 subtypes, but with much higher affinity for α5, and unlike newer α5 inverse agonists such as α5IA, L-655,708 exerts its subtype selectivity purely via higher binding affinity for this receptor subtype, with its efficacy as an inverse agonist being around the same at all the sub

Fluparoxan (developmental code name GR50360A) is a potent α2-adrenergic receptor antagonist (pKB = 7.9) with excellent selectivity for this receptor over the α1-adrenergic receptor (2,630-fold), and is the only well-studied α2-adrenergic receptor antagonist in its structural family which does not antagonize any variant of the imidazoline receptor. It was shown to possess central α2-adrenoceptor antagonist activity after oral doses in man and was patented as an antidepressant by Glaxo in the early 1980s, but its development was discontinued when the compound failed to show a clear clinical adva