Rufinamide is not Flunitrazepam
You should check out this interesting press release. BASEL, Switzerland, March 31, PRNewswire. Yet another epilepsy drug is showing anti anxiety effects as well. It does beg the question, is there a relationship between epilepsy and anxiety? Let’s start here
Synosia Therapeutics today announced the start of a multi-site, Phase II clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of rufinamide (SYN-111), a sodium channel blocker, as a potential treatment for general anxiety disorder.
The name Rufinamide should not cause fear as the date rape drug, because they are not the same thing, flunitrazepam is the date rape drug. Rufinamide is a triazole derivative. They are not the same thing so let us return to the article.
“Given the extensive safety experience available from previous studies, we believe this structurally novel compound has the potential to relieve anxiety without the adverse side effects of current treatments,” said Stephen Bandak, Synosia’s chief medical officer. “There is a real need for new treatment options without the limited compliance associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or the risk of dependence of benzodiazepine-based treatments.”
Whoa! Now that is some claim to make. It’s a claim I like and hope for, because I know that sooner or later my doctor will take me off of Klonopin and I’ll be right back where I was before, malfunctioning. So this little press release offers some hope. Interestingly, when they first marketed the drug they were not allowed to offer it as an anti anxiety.
This bears watching.
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