Nowadays, new schizophrenia treatments are more ambitious than ever, aiming not only to improve psychotic symptoms, but also quality of life and social reinsertion. Our objective is to briefly but critically review the diagnosis of schizophrenia, the atypical antipsychotics sertindole's pharmacology, safety and status, and mainly evaluate the effects of sertindole compared with other second gen...

The Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) and other recent research suggest that second-generation antipsychotics other than clozapine may offer few, if any, advantages over first-generation antipsychotics, especially agents of intermediate potency. Thus the newer agents are not likely to generate sufficient benefit to justify their $11.5 billion annual cost. Polic...

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder often associated with cognitive impairment and affective, mainly depressive, symptoms. Antipsychotic medication is the primary intervention for stabilization of acute psychotic episodes and prevention of recurrences and relapses in patients with schizophrenia. Typical antipsychotics, the older class of antipsychotic agents, are currently used much ...

Supersensitivity psychosis is a recognized complication of long-term antipsychotic treatment, in which patients develop new or reemergent psychotic symptoms, generally accompanied by dyskinetic movements, due to prolonged dopamine receptor blockade and resultant supersensitivity. Though it is most closely associated with schizophrenia and the use of typical antipsychotic agents, it has also bee...

In a search towards new and efficient agents to treat mental disorders such as schizophrenia 6-[3-(4-substitutedphenylpiperazin-1-l)propoxy]benzo[d][1,3]oxathiol-2ones were designed, synthesized and evaluated in vivo for their ability to inhibit apomorphine induced climbing behaviour and inhibition of 5-HTP induced head twitches representing antidopaminergic and antiserotonergic action respecti...

A number of antipsychotic drugs have been available in the US, beginning in the early 1950s with chlorpromazine, and these drugs have proven to be immensely useful in the treatment of various psychotic illnesses, in particular schizophrenia. Several of these drugs are available in parenteral form, e.g., haloperidol and chlorpromazine, for intramuscular (IM) use. Many clinicians have found these...

The introduction of atypical antipsychotic drugs (AAPDs), or second-generation antipsychotics, with clozapine as the prototype, has largely changed the clinicians' attitudes toward the treatment of mental illnesses including, but not limited to schizophrenia. Initially, there was optimism that AAPDs would be superior over typical antipsychotic drugs (TAPDs), or first-generation antipsychotic dr...

Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic that binds to a large number of neurotransmitter receptors, including the dopamine D1, D2, and D4, serotonin and histamine receptors. Its antipsychotic effects are likely the result of potent antagonism at dopamine and serotonin receptors [1]. It is frequently used in Huntington’s disease (HD) since it reduces chorea, is a mood stabilizer, augments antide...

Conventional neuroleptic drugs are thought to derive their antipsychotic efficacy through influences on the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system. In contrast, motor side effects of these drugs are suggested to follow from influences on the nigrostriatal DA system. This conceptualization is based on the assumption that behaviors mediated by the mesolimbic DA system are involved in schizophrenia while...

We had observed that parkinsonism, especially without tremor, was frequently unrecognized and, therefore, often not considered when patients were admitted to the hospital after a fall. This led to our interest in the problem of underdiagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and related disorders. Our interest grew further with our work on elderly patients with behavioral problems who were treated w...