The taskforce

Five major international scientific organizations joined forces to create this nomenclature.

Since the current nomenclature of psychiatric medication is confused and confusing, both to the patient and the care giver,the nbn was initiated to update the way medications is being named. 

Our Rationale and Guidelines

Up till now, medicines were being named according to arbitrary descriptors based on indication (antidepressants, antipsychotics, etc.) or chemical structure. It is our belief that a change was necessary and that the name should be chosen with reference to contemporary pharmacological knowledge, and on the medication’s mode of action.

NbN’s Scientific Reliability and Bias-Free Approach

Five major international neuropsychopharmacological research organizations joined forces to bring you this new and improved nomenclature. The NbN is a joint initiative of ECNP, ACNP, CINP, AsCNP and IUPHARM, and is fully supported by the ECNP.

All expenses related to the development of the nomenclature were covered by ECNP as part of its ongoing mission to encourage advances in the understanding of the brain’s function, which are translated into better treatments and improved public health.

Throughout the process, NbN received no direct or indirect support from any pharmacological company or other organization, which means that our main agenda was and is to provide an improved method of naming and relating to different psychiatric medications for the benefit of both patient and care giver.

Updates and Feedback

Taking into account new findings and insights, including feedback that reflects the physicians’ clinical experience, the taskforce will update the NbN twice a year (May and September).

NbN’s app also allows and encourages you to submit your feedback and suggestions.

The organizations

The task force

Joseph Zohar

Chair, ECNP

Prof. Zohar is a professor of Psychiatry at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv Universality a visiting Professor at the University of Maastrich (The Nederland's). Prof. Zohar is the past president of ECNP and the current chair of the Expert Platform Focus on Depression. He is has founded and is a member of the editorial board of World Journal of Biological Psychiatry. Prof. Zohar has authored more than 300 papers, and has written or edited 16 books. He has initiated and has been the chair of the taskforce on nomenclature.  

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Stephen Stahl

CINP

Dr. Stahl is professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego and Honorary Fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of CNS Spectrums and is author of over 500 articles and chapters, and more than 1600 scientific presentations and abstracts, has written or edited 43 textbooks, including the best-selling and award winning Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology, and also Essential Psychopharmacology Prescriber’s Guide.  He has also recently published novel, a thriller Shell Shock.  

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Hans-Jürgen Möller

CINP

Prof. Hans-Jürgen Möller worked in the recent past (1994-2012) as Full Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Psychiatric Universitiy Department Munich, where he is currently professor emeritus. His research work focussed on biologial psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacolgy, a field , in which he published more than 1000 papers in peer reviewed journals (Hirsch Faktor 68). He was Chief editor of the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry and European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience  as well as Psychopharmakotherapie. 

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Pierre Blier

ACNP

Dr. Blier is a Full Professor of the Departments of Psychiatry and Cellular & Molecular Medicine, at the University of Ottawa, and Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program at the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research, Royal Ottawa Mental Health Care Center. He has carried out basic research investigating mechanisms of action of psychotropic medications since 1978, conducts investigator-initiated clinical studies, and treats patients with mood and anxiety disorders on a daily basis.

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David Kupfer

ACNP

David J. Kupfer, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Between 1983 and 2009, Dr. Kupfer served as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Director of Research at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. A prolific writer, Dr. Kupfer has authored or co-authored a combination of more than 1,120 articles, books, and book chapters. Dr. Kupfer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1990. He is the Founding President of the International Society of Bipolar Disorders. Dr. Kupfer chaired the American Psychiatric Association Task Force for DSM-5.

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Shigeto Yamawaki

AsCNP

Dr. Shigeto Yamawaki is Professor and Chairman of Department of Psychiatry and   Neurosciences, Hiroshima University. He is the current President of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP). He was the founding President of Asian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (AsCNP) and President of the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology (ICGP). He serves as a member of Science Council of Japan. He has published more than 300 papers in the high impact international journals such as Nature Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuroimage as well as International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

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Hiroyuki Uchida

AsCNP

Dr. Hiroyuki Uchida is a senior lecturer at the Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine. He has been performing a series of clinical trials and positron emission tomography studies, focusing on the optimal antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia and has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles. 

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Filippo Drago

IUPHR

Filippo Drago graduated in Medicine from Catania University Medical School, Italy in 1978. He was certified in Psychiatry in 1982 from the University of Catania and in the same year he achieved the PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, working with Prof. D. de Wied. In addition, he was certified in Neurology in 1986 and Mental Hygiene in 1990. At present, Prof. Drago is Full Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Catania Medical School, Director of the Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences (Biometec) and Chairman of the Master in Drug Regulatory Disciplines at the same University. Since 2012 he is Director of the Clinical Pharmacology Unit, University Policlinic of Catania. He was President of the Unifarm Research Centre for Clinical Pharmacology. He is author of about 350 papers published in peer-reviewed journals.

 

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Guy Goodwin

ECNP

Guy M. Goodwin, DPhil, FMedSci is currently a research fellow and former WA Handley Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 

His research interests are in the treatment of bipolar disorder and the application of neuroscience in understanding its neurobiology, with a focus on developing new treatments. He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, was President of the British Association for Psychopharmacology (2004–2005) and is president of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) and a Senior Investigator on the faculty of UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

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David Nutt

ECNP

Prof. David Nutt is a psychiatrist at Imperial College London. He trained at Cambridge, Guys Hospital, Oxford University and NIH. His research focuses on the use of PET and fMRI imaging to understand how drugs work in the brain and the mechanism underpinning psychiatric disorders particularly addiction and anxiety disorders.

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