Types of antipsychotic medication

Antipsychotics can be roughly divided into ‘typical’ and ‘atypical’ classes. These differ predominantly in their side effects and both have generally equal efficacy in treating the symptoms of psychosis. The main exception is the medication clozapine, which has particular effectiveness in managing the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, although it has many side effects. Antipsychotics are divided into two main groups as although they have the same antipsychotic effect their side effects are different. This is illustrated below.

Main Groups

Examples

Common side effects

Indications

Old ‘typical’ Haloperidol Sedation Psychotic illness Thioridazine Dry mouth Schizophrenia   Chlorpromazine Constipation Drug induced psychosis# Acute mania Severe behavioural disturbance Newer “atypical’ Olanzapine Sedation Risperidone Weight Gain Quetiapine Metabolic problems Clozapine Antipsychotic drugs often have two names. One is the chemical name of the active ingredient and the other is the ‘brand name’ given to the drug by the pharmaceutical company. Some drugs may have several brand names as they are manufactured by different companies. The common ones are listed below:

Chemical (“generic”) name

Brand name

Haloperidol Serenace, Haldol Chlorpromazine Largactil Olanzopine Zyprexa, Zylap, Zypine, Lanzek, Ozin Zuclopenthixol Clopixol Risperidone Risperidal, Ozidal, Resdone, Rispericor, Rixidone Amisulpride Solian, Amipride, Sulprix Paliperidone Invega Aripiprazole Abilify Quetiapine Seroquel, Delucon, Quetiaccord Clozapine Clopine, Clozaril Flupenthixol Fluanxol Asenapine Saphris