Treatment of anxiety using fenobam (a nonbenzodiazepine) in a double-blind standard (diazepam) placebo-controlled study

JC Pecknold, DJ McCLURE… - Journal of clinical …, 1982 - journals.lww.com
JC Pecknold, DJ McCLURE, L APPELTAUER, L WRZESINSKI, T ALLAN
Journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 1982journals.lww.com
VENOBAM [1-(3-chlorophenyl)-3-(1-methyl-4-oxo-2-imidazolidinylidine) urea hydrate] has a
novel chemical structure that is unrelated to any present group of neurotropic drugs (Fig. 1).
Pharmacologically, animal-conditioned conflict tests (eg, Geller-Seifter Test) showed
fenobam to be equipotent with chlordiazepoxide when given orally and five times more
potent when given parenterally. Other tests indicated much less sedative, muscle relaxant,
and anticonvulsive activity with feno-bam than with the barbiturates or the benzodiazepines …
VENOBAM [1-(3-chlorophenyl)-3-(1-methyl-4-oxo-2-imidazolidinylidine) urea hydrate] has a novel chemical structure that is unrelated to any present group of neurotropic drugs (Fig. 1). Pharmacologically, animal-conditioned conflict tests (eg, Geller-Seifter Test) showed fenobam to be equipotent with chlordiazepoxide when given orally and five times more potent when given parenterally. Other tests indicated much less sedative, muscle relaxant, and anticonvulsive activity with feno-bam than with the barbiturates or the benzodiazepines and also minimal interaction with alcohol." Human and animal testing indicated that the drug was nontoxic. In uncontrolled studies of fenobam investigating clinical anxiolytic effects, some improvement was seen in those patients who completed a 4-week trial." Statistically sig-nificant improvement over a 6-week trial was noted in another report," and in a placebo-controlled study fenobam did not show any superiority over placebo.“Accordingly a 5-week double-blind, standard and placebo-controlled study was designed to determine the anxiolytic potency of fenobam. Diazepam was used as the standard.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins