NOVEL ATYPICAL ANTIPSYCHOTIC AGENTS

Abstract

Antipsychotics are a group of drugs commonly but not exclusively used to treat psychosis. Antipsychotic agents are grouped in two categories: Typical and Atypical antipsychotics. The first antipsychotic was chlorpromazine, which was developed as a surgical anesthetic. The first atypical anti-psychotic medication, clozapine, was discovered in the 1950s, and introduced in clinical practice in the 1970s. Both typical and atypical antipsychotics are effective in reducing positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Blockade of D₂ receptor in mesolimbic pathway is responsible for antipsychotic action. Typical antipsychotics are not particularly selective and also block Dopamine receptors in the mesocortical pathway, tuberoinfundibular pathway, and the nigrostriatal pathway. Blocking D₂ receptors in these other pathways is thought to produce some of the unwanted side effects. Atypical antipsychotics differ from typical psychotics in their "limbic- specific" dopamine type 2 (D₂)-receptor binding and high ratio of serotonin type 2 (5-HT₂)-receptor binding to D₂. Atypical antipsychotics are associated with a decreased capacity to cause EPSs, TD, narcoleptic malignant syndrome, and hyperprolactinemia. Atypical antipsychotic agents were developed in response to problems with typical agents, including lack of efficacy in some patients, lack of improvement in negative symptoms, and troublesome adverse effects, especially extrapyramidal symptoms (EPSs) and tardive dyskinesia (TD).