Abecarnil is a β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid derivative that is in development for the treatment of anxiety disorders. Animal work has shown that abecarnil has a low propensity to cause the problems of dependency and abuse and that the drug has marked anxiolytic and anticonvulsant activity but does not appear to have significant effects on motor coordination—a finding in marked contrast to the effects of diazepam (Stephens et al. 1990). This interesting phenomena may be explained by the fact that abecarnil is acting as a full agonist at some receptors that mediate certain effects (potent anxiolytic) and as a partial agonist at others (lack of side effects). One published clinical study compared abecarnil at different doses with placebo in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (Ballenger et al. 1991). This showed that abecarnil was significantly more effective than placebo in terms of anxiolysis. Stopping treatment produced no withdrawal effects in patients on the lower dose, although some effects were seen in those taking higher doses.
Abecarnil is a partial agonist at the benzodiazepine–GABA receptor complex, and is used in generalized anxiety disorder.
Anticonvulsant, Anxiolytic
