In one aspect, the invention relates to compounds, including benzamide derivatives and cyclic benzamide derivatives, which are useful as positive allosteric modulators of the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 5 (mGluR5) synthetic methods for making the compounds pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds and methods of treating neurological and psychiatric disorders associated with glutamate dysfunction using the compounds and compositions. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention.