Chapter 11 Traditional medicines and the new paradigm of psychotropic drug action

Abstract

Abstract The pharmaceutical industry exploits traditional remedies for the development of new drugs, especially chasing for unusual molecules with interesting and innovative mechanisms of action. Even when traditional formulations – rather than just plant species – are taken into consideration, traditional medical systems are not regarded as potential sources of new paradigms for drug usage. Although the phytotherapy industry is more likely to innovate, and more easily accepts less conventional concepts of treatment and drug action, pharmacology as a discipline is refractory to the potential contribution of ethnopharmacology. These complex patterns suggest that the effects of plant drugs may often be based on a more diverse pharmacodynamic basis than the usual understanding of drug/effect relationships. In fact, the unusual pharmacological activity observed with plant formulations may result from effects of more than one active ingredient, from drug interactions among ingredients, from active ingredients possessing multiple mechanisms of action, or even from interference with targets not yet recognized by the current biomedical understanding of cell biology modulation. This paper explores the idea that the understanding of traditional medical concepts of health and disease in general, and traditional medical practices in particular, can lead to true innovation in paradigms of drug usage and development. Diet, prevention, well-being maintenance, low-dose/long-term posologies, and complex mixtures, often central to traditional medical treatments, are discussed. Traditionally used adaptogens, analgesics, antipsychotics, and anticonvulsants, discussed in the light of the current understanding of drug/receptor interactions and mental disorders, are remarkably well in line with newer paradigms of psychotropic drug action and therapy.