OBJECTIVE The incidence of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is not known, but the frequency of its occurrence with conventional antipsychotic agents has been reported to vary from 0.02% to 2.44%. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE search conducted in January 2003 and review of references within the retrieved articles. DATA SYNTHESIS Our MEDLINE research yielded 68 cases (21 females and 47 males) of N...

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of treatment with atypical antipsychotic drugs on brain levels of glutamate plus glutamine in early-stage first-episode schizophrenia. PARTICIPANTS Sixteen patients (eight males, eight females; aged 30 ± 11 years) completed the study. METHODS We used administered 6 months of atypical antipsychotic drugs and used proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to evalua...

Typical antipsychotic drugs with a high extrapyramidal motor side-effects liability markedly increase extracellular dopamine in the caudate-putamen, while atypical antipsychotic drugs with a low incidence of extrapyramidal motor side-effects have less pronounced stimulating actions on striatal dopamine. Therefore, it has been suggested that the extrapyramidal motor side-effects liability of ant...

Various lines of evidence indicate the presence of progressive pathophysiological processes occurring within the brains of patients with schizophrenia. By modulating chemical neurotransmission, antipsychotic drugs may influence a variety of functions regulating neuronal resilience and viability and have the potential for neuroprotection. This article reviews the current literature describing pr...

During the last decade, the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been reported in users of antipsychotic drugs. However, the reports have been inconclusive. This study aimed to determine the relative risk of VTE in antipsychotic drug users. Using data from medical databases in North Jutland and Aarhus Counties, Denmark, and the Danish Civil Registration System, we identified 5,999 cases wit...

Repeated administration of antipsychotic drugs to normal rats has been shown to induce a state of dopamine neuron inactivation known as depolarization block, which correlates with the ability of the drugs to exhibit antipsychotic efficacy and extrapyramidal side effects in schizophrenia patients. Nonetheless, in normal rats depolarization block requires weeks of antipsychotic drug administratio...