RT Book, Section
A1 N. Juurlink, David
A2 Nelson, Lewis S.
A2 Howland, Mary Ann
A2 Lewin, Neal A.
A2 Smith, Silas W.
A2 Goldfrank, Lewis R.
A2 Hoffman, Robert S.
SR Print(0)
ID 1163014148
T1 Antipsychotics
T2 Goldfrank's Toxicologic Emergencies, 11e
YR 2019
FD 2019
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259859618
LK accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1163014148
RD 2024/04/24
AB The  development  of  antipsychotic  drugs  dramatically  altered  the  practice  of  psychiatry  and  eventually,  medical  care  in  general.  Before  the  introduction  of  chlorpromazine  in  1950,  patients  with  schizophrenia  were  treated  with  nonspecific  sedatives  such  as  barbiturates  or  chloral  hydrate.  Agitated  patients  were  housed  in  large  “mental  institutions”  and  often  placed  in  physical  restraints,  and  thousands  underwent  surgical  disruption  of  the  connections  between  the  frontal  cortices  and  other  areas  of  the  brain  (leucotomy).  By  1955,  approximately  500,000  patients  with  mental  health  disorders  were  institutionalized  in  the  United  States.  The  advent  of  antipsychotic  drugs  in  the  1950s  revolutionized  the  care  of  these  patients.  These  drugs,  originally  termed  major  tranquilizers  and  subsequently  neuroleptics,  dramatically  reduced  the  characteristic  hallucinations,  delusions,  thought  disorders  and  paranoia—the  “positive”  symptoms  of  schizophrenia.