Effects of psychotropic drugs on cell proliferation and differentiation

Some of the psychotropic agents widely used for the amelioration of anxiety , depression, and psychosis also show an effect at the cellular proliferati on level. Surprisingly little research, however, has been directed to the a ntitumoral potential of these drugs, alone or in combination with establish ed cancer treatments. Our review of the literature to date has yielded some promising early findings. Ligands active at the benzodiazepine (BZ) recept ors have been studied the most extensively and were found to have different ial, concentration dependent effects on the growth and proliferation of bot h normal and cancer cells. Of the phenothiazines tested, chlorpromazine (CP Z) and perphenazine (PPZ) had the most potent cytotoxic action on fibroblas ts and glioma cells. Antiproliferative effects also were noted by these and other agents in leukemic and breast cancer cell lines. Additional psychotr opic drugs studied include the atypical antipsychotics, antidepressants, an d mood stabilizers:, especially lithium. Most of the reported activities we re observed in in vitro studies and were achieved at high pharmacological c oncentrations. Further in vivo studies in well-designed animal models are w arranted to determine whether these well-tolerated, relatively inexpensive, and widely available drugs or their derivatives may be added in the future to the armamentarium of cancer pharmacotherapy. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.