Abstract
Antipsychotic agents in common use all have unwanted neurological (neuroleptic) effects as well as beneficial effects in severely ill psychiatric patients. They include phenothiazines, thioxanthenes, butyrophenones, and many other compounds proven effective in the management of a broad range of psychotic symptoms and particularly useful in the treatment of schizophrenia and mania. The evidence that this class of substances has selective antipsychotic effects as opposed to merely tranquilizing effects in schizophrenia and other disorders marked by abnormalities of thought associations, perceptions, and beliefs is now overwhelming (Baldessarini 1977a, 1980). Antipsychotic drugs are highly effective in hastening remis sions of acute psychotic illnesses and also seem to prevent later exacerba tions of psychotic symptoms in chronic psychotic disorders, leading to their prolonged use in schizophrenia. The introduction of antipsychotic agents into European medical practice in 1952 was followed by a virtual revolution in the theory and practice of modern psychiatry (Swazey 1974). More
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