Alaproclate is a psychoactive drug

Psychoactive drug

A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...

 and research chemical that was being developed

Drug development

Drug development is a blanket term used to define the process of bringing a new drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery...

 as an antidepressant

Antidepressant

An antidepressant is a psychiatric medication used to alleviate mood disorders, such as major depression and dysthymia and anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder. According to Gelder, Mayou &*Geddes people with a depressive illness will experience a therapeutic effect to their mood;...

 by the Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 pharmaceutical company Astra AB

Astra AB

Astra AB was a former international pharmaceutical company headquartered in Södertälje, Sweden. Astra was formed in 1913 and merged with the British Zeneca Group in 1999 to form AstraZeneca. Product development was focused on therapeutics for gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and respiratory...

 (now AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca plc is a global pharmaceutical and biologics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's seventh-largest pharmaceutical company measured by revenues and has operations in over 100 countries...

) in the 1970s. It acts as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor

Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors or serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitor are a class of compounds typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of depression, anxiety disorders, and some personality disorders. The efficacy of SSRIs is disputed...

 (SSRI), and along with zimelidine

Zimelidine

Zimelidine was the first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant to be marketed. It is a pyridylallylamine, and is structurally different from other antidepressants....

 and indalpine

Indalpine

Indalpine is an SSRI class drug that was discovered in 1977 by the pharmacologists Le Fur and Uzan at Pharmuka, a small Paris based pharmaceutical firm, who credit Baron Shopsin and the innovative body of basic and clinical research carried out with colleagues at NYU-Bellevue/NYU School of...

, was one of the first of its kind. Development was discontinued due to the observation of liver complications in rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....

 studies

Research

Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

. Some studies have found that it acts as a noncompetitive NMDA antagonist, but does not have discriminative stimulus properties similar to phencyclidine

Phencyclidine

Phencyclidine , commonly initialized as PCP and known colloquially as angel dust, is a recreational dissociative drug...

.