RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The newer, 'atypical' antipsychotic drugs--their development and current therapeutic use. JF British Journal of General Practice JO Br J Gen Pract FD British Journal of General Practice SP 745 OP 749 VO 49 IS 446 A1 T Kendrick YR 1999 UL http://bjgp.org/content/49/446/745.abstract AB General practitioners (GPs) need to become more aware of a new generation of antipsychotic drugs that are 'atypical' in that, unlike traditional neuroleptics, they do not cause extrapyramidal side-effects; they may also be more effective against both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia by their actions on various neurotransmitter pathways in the brain. This is a non-systematic review of the development of these new drugs and outlines how they are currently being used. It includes information found from an electronic search of the databases MEDLINE (from 1966 to June 1998) and EMBASE (from 1980 to January 1998) using the combined search terms 'antipsychotic agents', 'atypical', and 'schizophrenia'.