Novel Antipsychotics in Treatment of Schizophrenia

Introduction The introduction of the first antipsychotic agents in the 1950s marked a dramatic improvement in the care for individuals with schizophrenia and other forms of severe and persistent mental illness. The discovery of antipsychotic medications encouraged medical science’s more systematic investigation of the biological underpinnings of schizophrenia and the development of additional agents that were effective in decreasing the psychotic features of schizophrenia and related disorders. Unfortunately, the emergence of extrapyramidal side effects (EPS) and tardive dyskinesia (TD) rendered the conventional neuroleptics intolerable for a number of patients, particularly in the long-term management of these disorders.