Chronopharmacology of psychotropic drugs: circadian rhythms in drug effects and its implications to rhythms in the brain

Abstract

The effects of many kinds of psychotropic drugs have been shown in animal studies to follow a circadian rhythm. Trials for the clinical application of this circadian rhythm have already been undertaken. Although the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still unclear, chronological changes in the levels of drugs in the blood and brain suggest that it is primarily due to rhythms in the brain's susceptibility to drugs. Rhythms are present in the level of intracerebral neurotransmitters, receptors and second messengers. Each of these rhythms may cause other rhythms within each system of neurotransmitters, which in turn induces a rhythm in the susceptibility to drugs.