neuroleptics
Last reviewed 08/2021
Neuroleptics are antipsychotic agents with a common pharmacological action - they are dopamine D2 receptor antagonists.
This term covers a wide range of drugs. They are used both for psychiatric conditions, and for other conditions in which a degree of sedation is required. As their alternative name - major tranquillisers - suggests, they are powerful drugs and have a wide range of pharmacological action on the central and the peripheral nervous systems.
Psychiatric therapeutic effects - reduce delusions, hallucinations and elevated mood, e.g. anxiety, elation or aggression, in the psychoses. In small doses they can be used as anxiolytics.
Other effects include:
- anti-cholinergic
- anti-adrenergic
- antiemetic: anti-dopamine and -histamine
- potentiation of hypnotics and analgesics
- extrapyramidal syndromes
- lowering of the convulsion threshold