ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Since the antipsychotic effects of chlorpromazine have been found in 1950s, many antipsychotics have been introduced. They enabled psychiatrists to use various strategies of pharmacotherapies against schizophrenia (1). The first generation antipsychotics induced many side-effects such as sedation and involuntary movements. The development of atypical antipsychotics was regarded as the major advance primarily because these drugs reduced such side-effects. “Atypical antipsychotics” can be defined as the antipsychotics that have ‘low extrapyramidal symptoms’ and ‘good for negative symptoms’. Since various atypical antipsychotics, however, have different pharmacological profile, understanding those diverse profiles helps to make more accurate choices of drugs in clinical practice.
