Drug Treatment of Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Ever since antipsychotic drug treatment was introduced into clinical psychiatry almost half a century ago,establishing a breakthrough in the management of schizophrenic disorders, this new therapeutic area has been characterized by a continuing attempt to optimize the results of treatment efforts for these patients. A plethora of medications, called neuroleptics in classical terminology, a term increasingly replaced by the indication-driven word antipsychotics, has been synthesized and tested to this end. Molecules of different chemical structures, ranging from tricyclic phenothiazines to thioxanthenes, butyrophenones, dibenzazepines, substituted benzamides and benzisoxazole derivatives are now used in the treatment of schizophrenia. The development of clozapine was clearly a quantum leap in these efforts.