This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages without signing in

Neuroleptics

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

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

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.