Development of new antipsychotics: changing trends

Abstract

Introduction: We aimed to examine the changing trends in development of antipsychotics in the past half century. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive literature search was completed, using MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane library. Findings/conclusion: During the past half century, numerous first-, second- and third-generation antipsychotics have been developed, in response to the identification of side effects such as extra pyramidal and metabolic side effects. Development of new antipsychotics however, is not only due to a wish to avoid troublesome side effects, but due to a desire to target specific fea tures of schizophrenia