Antipsychotic drugs side effects

Kane JM. Antipsychotic drug side effects their relationship to dose. J Clin Psychiatry 1985 46(5 Pt 2) 16-21. 

Many of the side effects associated with antipsychotic agents can be attributed to their antagonist activity at a variety of CNS receptors, which include histamine Hi, adrenergic 01/02, cholinergic Mi receptors, serotonin 5-HT2, and dopamine D2 receptors in the brain. For example, antipsychotic drug side effects such as sedation. 

Chlorpromazine had been shown to produce a tranquil state in animals and since it had a similar effect in humans it became known as a major tranquiliser but the term is rarely used today. Sometimes the drugs used to treat schizophrenia are called anti-psychotics but more commonly neuroleptics. Leptic means to activate (take hold of) and in animals these compounds produce a state of maintained motor tone known as catalepsy. This is an extrapyramidal effect and in schizophrenics the neuroleptics can cause a number of extrapyramidal side-effects (EPSs) including Parkinsonism. The new term neuroleptic is unsatisfactory as a description of clinically useful drugs. It really describes a condition (catalepsy) seen in animals and is more indicative of a compound s ability to produce EPSs than to treat schizophrenia. Antipsychotic is more descriptive but could imply a more general efficacy in psychoses than is the case. It would seem more appropriate to call a drug that is used to treat schizophrenia an antischizophrenic just as we use the terms antidepressant or antiepileptic irrespective of how the drug works. Despite such personal reservations, the term neuroleptic will be used in this text. 

Tardive dyskinesia A chronic disorder of the nervous system characterized by involuntary jerky or writhing movements of the face, tongue, jaws, trunk, and limbs, usually developing as a late side effect of prolonged treatment with antipsychotic drugs. 

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