Toward a clinically relevant classification of antipsychotic drugs

الملخص EN

both more effective and more tolerable.

A variety of classification schemes has been used over the years.

Antipsychotic drugs have been classified according to chemical structure, potency, efficacy and side-effect profiles, and sites of neurotransmitter receptor action.

They have been known as neuroleptics or major tranquilizers.

They once were commonly classified on a spectrum of low potency to high potency.

With the discovery of the ‘a typicality’ of clozapine, they were divided into typical (first generation) and atypical (second generation) antipsychotic drugs.

Debate continues about the comparative benefits and harms of typical and atypical antipsychotics and about the validity of classifying them into first and second-generation antipsychotics.

Clozapine, the first second generation antipsychotic, was discovered in the 1960s and thus should be considered a first generation drug.

The therapeutic effects of typical antipsychotics are not much different from those of atypical antipsychotics.

The long-term use of all antipsychotics is associated with similar side effects such as involuntary movement disorders and metabolic syndrome.

The current paper reviews antipsychotic drugs nomenclature.

It points out the need for a clinically relevant classification system.