---

Serendipity in psychotropic drugs: Unearthing the origins

---

Review Article

Author Details : Mehreen Imran*, Semira

Volume : 11, Issue : 1, Year : 2024

Article Page : 17-22

https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijpp.2024.004

Suggest article by email

Get Permission

---

Abstract

This is a dive into the history of several groundbreaking psychiatric drugs and their discoveries. The article begins by exploring the curious origin of the word “serendipity” following Horace Walpole’s encounter with a fairytale. This captivating emergence of “serendipity” is followed by an account of lithium discovered in 1817. About a century and a half later, lithium would receive FDA approval, becoming a cornerstone in the treatment of mania.The narrative meanders to other drugs that have a similar thread of serendipity woven into their beginnings— chlordiazepoxide, meprobamate, chlorpromazine, finally halting at iproniazid, an anti-tubercular agent that unexpectedly revealed its mood-enhancing potential and paved the way for the development of monoamine oxidase inhibitors as antidepressants.The authors navigate through the intricacies of chance and discovery that have influenced the trajectory of psychiatric drug development, leading to unexpected breakthroughs that have forever left their mark on the undeniably vast landscape that is mental health.

Keywords: Serendipity, lithium, chlordiazepoxide, imipramine, chlorpromazine

How to cite : Imran M, Semira, Serendipity in psychotropic drugs: Unearthing the origins. Indian J Pharm Pharmacol 2024;11(1):17-22

This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.