Chemical models of anxiety: Evidence for diagnostic and neurotransmitter specificity

The implications of theory-based versus data-based approaches to treatment and the evidence for the diagnostic and neurotransmitter specificity of the anxiety disorders are discussed within the context of old and new chemical models of anxiety. The authors suggest that the interplay between clinical observation, formation of testable hypotheses and data-based experimentation, will result in the identification of clinical and biological predictors of drug response and the development of more effective and better tolerated drug therapies.