Drug Therapy - schizophrenia Flashcards
Typical antipsychotics are also known as
conventional or ‘first generation antipsychotics’
example of a typical antipsychotic
chlorpromazine used to combat positive symptoms of schizophrenia
how do typical antipsychotics work
reducing the effect of dopamine to reduce symptoms of schizophrenia as they don’t stimulate dopamine receptors
Typical antipsychotics are
dopamine antagonists
the effectiveness of dopamine antagonist led to
dopamine hypothesis
the drug chlorpromazine eliminates
hallucinations and delusions
advantage of typical antipsychotic
hallucinations and delusions usually diminish within a few days of medication
disadvantage typical antipsychotic– Kapur 2007
estimated that between 60% and 75% of D2 receptors must be blocked for these drugs to be effective– D2receptors blocked in other areas of brain leading to undesirable side effects
Atypical antipsychotics example
Clozapine combat positive symptoms but have some benefit to negative symptoms
how do atypical antipsychotic drugs work
act of dopamine system by blocking D2 receptors temporarily and then rapidly dissociate to allow normal dopamine transmission
advantage of clozapine- atypical
little effect on dopamine systems that control movement, they tend not to cause movement problems
disadvantage of both atypical and typical antipsychotics
only treat the symptoms of schizophrenia not the cause– not long term
disadvantage– atypical Crossely 2010
found patients on these drugs gained more weight than those on typical antipsychotics
