Abstract

Since the era of antipsychotic pharmacotherapy began with the discovery of the antipsychotic properties of chlorpromazine in 1952, many new medications for psychosis (antipsychotics) have become available. All currently approved medications for psychosis, except pimavanserin, remain dopaminergic agents. Medications for psychosis alleviate psychotic symptoms and prevent relapse into psychosis in the treatment of schizophrenia. Moreover, they are also indicated for a variety of other conditions, including bipolar disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Medications for psychosis sometimes cause various side effects while their side effect profiles greatly differ among individual drugs. Much effort has recently been devoted to developing drugs that exert their effects by modulating neural systems other than the dopaminergic system, and several drugs have demonstrated promising results in Phase II and III trials. In addition, individualized treatment for a specific patient based on their biological characteristics is one of the future goals of psychopharmacological treatment of schizophrenia. These goals will be achieved with precise biological characterization of this illness.

Keywords

• Dopamine
• Serotonin
• Glutamate
• AMPA
• NMDA
• Antipsychotic
• Schizophrenia
• Treatment-resistant depression