Anxiety is a neurological disorder that is characterized by excessive, persistent, and unreasonable worry about everyday things like family, work, money, and relationships. The current therapy used for the treatment has many disadvantages like higher cost, severe adverse reactions, and has suboptimal efficiency. There is a need to look for more innovative approaches for the treatment of anxiety disorder which overcomes the disadvantages of conventional treatment. Recent findings suggest a strong correlation of glutamate with anxiety. Some promising drugs which have a novel mechanism for anxiolytic action are currently under clinical development for generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Similarly, an interrelation of oxytocin with neuropeptide S or glutamate or vasopressin can also be considered for further evaluation for the development of new drugs for anxiety treatment. Anxiolytic drug development is a multi-target approach, with the idea of more efficiently equilibrating perturbed circuits. This review focuses on targeting unconventional targets like the glutamate system, voltage-gated ion channels, and neuropeptides system either alone or in combination for the treatment of anxiety disorder.

焦虑症是一种神经系统疾病，其特征是对家庭、工作、金钱和人际关系等日常事务过度、持续和不合理的担忧。目前用于治疗的疗法存在成本较高、不良反应严重、疗效欠佳等诸多缺点。需要寻找更多创新方法来治疗焦虑症，以克服常规治疗的缺点。最近的研究结果表明谷氨酸与焦虑有很强的相关性。一些具有新的抗焦虑作用机制的有前景的药物目前正在临床开发中，用于广泛性焦虑症、社交焦虑症、恐慌症、强迫症或创伤后应激障碍。相似地，催产素与神经肽 S 或谷氨酸盐或加压素的相互关系也可考虑用于进一步评估开发治疗焦虑症的新药。抗焦虑药物开发是一种多靶点方法，其想法是更有效地平衡扰动回路。本综述重点关注非传统靶点，如谷氨酸系统、电压门控离子通道和神经肽系统，单独或联合治疗焦虑症。