Forecasts For Growth In Euro Psychotropic Markets

Europe's market for psychotropic drugs has experienced major advances in product technology in recent years, especially in the antidepressant sector, comments a new report from market research publisher Frost & Sullivan (Report No 3066-52). As a result of increased acceptance and diagnosis of neurological illness, which in some parts of Europe were previously left undiagnosed due to physicians' reluctance to acknowledge such illness, it says, technology has also progressed in the psychotropic drugs market.

In 1993, the European market for psychotropic drugs (minor tranquilizers) was valued at $2.08 billion and is forecast to rise to $2.63 billion by the year 2000. In terms of product groups, the market is dominated by antidepressants, worth $799.3 million in 1993 and expected to reach a value of $1.3 billion by 2000.

Imipramine and amitriptyline, among others, came to be known collectively as tricyclic antidepressants, the report says, because of their characteristic three-ring chemical structure. As a result of their efficiency in the treatment of depression and mild depressive illness, they pioneered a new, lucrative market, says F&S. Tricyclics are still the most widely prescribed group of antidepressants in Europe and usually the first to be tried in the treatment of depression, it adds.