α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as therapeutic targets in schizophrenia: Update on animal and clinical studies and strategies for the future.

ABSTRACT: Schizophrenia is a devastating mental illness and its effective treatment is among the most challenging issues in psychiatry. The symptoms of schizophrenia are heterogeneous ranging from positive symptoms (e.g., delusions, hallucinations) to negative symptoms (e.g., anhedonia, social withdrawal) to cognitive dysfunction. Antipsychotics are effective at ameliorating positive symptoms in some patients; however, they are not reliably effective at improving the negative symptoms or cognitive impairments. The inability to address the cognitive impairments is a particular concern since they have the greatest long-term impact on functional outcomes. While decades of research have been devoted to the development of pro-cognitive agents for schizophrenia, to date, no drug has been approved for clin

SUBMITTER: Terry AV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8141324 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature