ABSTRACT
The French researchers Delay and Deniker discovered in 1952 that chlorpromazine (Largactil) was not only useful as a pharmacological method of controlling temperature in operations where the organism was frozen (hibernating), but that it also had antipsychotic effects. This caused fresh optimism among those caring for people with schizophrenia. Little by little, a number of new substances were synthesised which had similar effects. Those who discovered them called the group of compounds neuroleptics (Greek lepsis, to grip hold of). Today antipsychotic medication is the usual term. During recent decades research has begun to show the sites and mechanisms of action of these medications in the brain. New compounds have been developed that have subtly different target sites and mechanisms of action for producing their antipsychotic effect. These substances are now called atypical neuroleptics.
