MDLinx: Could orexin drugs offer psychiatry a new path beyond SSRIs and stimulants?
Featuring Barry K. Herman, MD, MMM, DLFAPA, Chief Medical Officer at Mentavi Health. Published in MDLinx.
This article looks at early interest in orexin-targeting medicines and what they could mean for psychiatry. Orexin is a brain signaling system best known for helping regulate wakefulness. Medicines that act on it were first developed for sleep conditions such as insomnia and narcolepsy.
Researchers are now testing whether the same system may also play a role in attention, motivation, and mood, in conditions such as ADHD and depression. These questions are still being studied.
In the article, Dr. Herman shares his clinical perspective, including a note of caution about how early this research still is.
Early results in one area don’t automatically carry over to another. A medicine that works in a sleep condition has to be tested separately to show whether it is safe and whether it helps in a different condition. That process takes time, and many promising ideas never reach everyday care. Clinicians weigh the full body of evidence before they change how they treat patients.
For now, the treatments clinicians use today remain the standard of care. If you have questions about your own treatment, talk with your prescriber, and don’t stop or change a medicine on your own.
Barry K. Herman, MD, MMM, DLFAPA, is Chief Medical Officer at Mentavi Health and a double board certified psychiatrist.
About Mentavi Health: Mentavi Health is an evidence-based telehealth company specializing in mental health care.
Read the full article in MDLinx: Could orexin drugs offer psychiatry a new path beyond SSRIs and stimulants?
