Antipsychotic drugs

The antipsychotic drugs (also called neuroleptics or major tranquilizers) are used primarily to treat schizophrenia, but they are also effective in other psychotic states, including manic states with psychotic symptoms such as grandiosity, paranoia, and hallucinations, and delirium. The use of antipsychotic medications involves a difficult trade-off between the benefit of alleviating psychotic symptoms and the risk of wide variety of troubling adverse effects. Antipsychotic drugs are not curative and do not eliminate the chronic thought disorder, but they often decrease the intensity of hallucinations and delusions and permit the person with schizophrenia to function in a supportive environment.