Time-dependent sensitization as the cornerstone for a new approach to pharmacotherapy: Drugs as foreign/stressful stimuli

This report begins by reviewing data showing that the effects of acute exposure to stressful situations can grow with the passage of time (time‐dependent sensitization; TDS) and then proceeds to suggest that the clinical syndromes of panic, delayed post‐traumatic stress disorder, and bulemia represent instances of stressor‐induced sensitization to subsequent stressors. Finally, it discusses data demonstrating that a host of pharmacological agents—including antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anxiolytics—also show TDS after a single or brief period of treatment and proposes that induction of this phenomenon is due to the foreign/stressful properties of drugs. The report concludes with the suggestion that the very widespread ability of drugs to trigger effects that then grow with the passage of time—independent of repeated treatment—can form the basis of a new and revolutionary approach to pharmacotherapy.