New strategies in the search of antipsychotic drugs.

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder characterized by a profound disruption of perception, cognition, and emotion. The condition affects approximately 1% of the population and is thought to be the result of genetic vulnerability and environmental influences. The symptoms of schizophrenia fall into three main categories, i.e. positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions), negative symptoms (apathy, lack of emotion) and cognitive symptoms (problems with attention, certain types of memory, and executive functions). Antipsychotic medications available effectively alleviate the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, negative symptoms and cognitive deficits remain poorly treated and are considered to belong to a core syndrome in schizophrenia. For this reason, investigators are developing more effective medications and using new research tools to understand the causes of schizophrenia and to find better ways to prevent and treat it.