[Consequences of prolonged use of psychoactive drugs. Substitute natural treatment and individual psychotherapy].

The history of psychopharmacology shows the differences existing between various groups of substances, natural, and more recent synthetic ones. At present, benzodiazepine anxiolytic agents are being singled out for their abuse and addiction potential. There has been a return to and widespread use of traditional natural therapies and more modern psychotherapy. Patients are more than every wary of synthetic agents. The production of herbal substances is nowdays organized on an industrial scale. The properties of "alternative" herbal agents are illustrated that have been known for centuries and are now studied with the methods of biochemistry. A large number of studies are concerned in several countries with the actions of traditional plants. The WHO encourages this tendency which in some countries has attained official status in schools of medicine, and amounts to a marked reduction in the cost of health. Nevertheless, the past and present importance of the research on synthetic drugs (antibiotics, and even psychoactive substances) cannot be denied. The attention of science in this field is aimed at finding new molecules that are possibly free of addictive properties but are effective in behavioral therapy. A recent example is buspirone. Finally, a psychotherapeutic method is briefly described. In his comment and conclusions the author poses important questions concerning the organization of medical and pharmaceutic studies in the near future.