When was the schizophrenia treatments first introduced?
As the first schizophrenia medication, chlorpromazine was synthesized in 1950. Thus 1950 was the introduction year for the new medication used in the treatment of schizophrenia. At that time this was a new era in the world of mental illness treatment. The use of chlorpromazine was first by suggested by French doctor Henri Laborit. He was using chlorpromazine prior to surgical operations to lower the anxiety level of the patients. Depending on his experience, he thought it would be an excellent idea to use it for the treatment of mental illness. Thus he proposed to use chlorpromazine in the mental illness clinical practice. Following his clinical trials in 1951, he had the best clinical success rates in psychotic patients at that time. So the theory became a practice. The clinical results were indicating that chlorpromazine considerably lowered agitation without causing severe sedative effect or loss of consciousness.
Chlorpromazine was the first antipsychotic medication on the market. Its antipsychotic effects and those of other first-generation agents (called “typical” antipsychotics) are thought to arise from its interference with nerve pathways in the brain that secrete the neurotransmitter dopamine. Although associated with several serious adverse effects, chlorpromazine and similar medications proved to be effective in controlling some of the symptoms of schizophrenia in many patients. 1955 was the year of chlorpromazine because it all over the world it became the number one treatment among the patients with schizophrenia. It helped to lower the hospitalization rates of psychiatric patients. It was a revolutionary corner stone therapy. After chlorpromazine many other antipsychotic drugs have been developed for the clinical practice. More recently, beginning in the 1980s and continuing to today, a number of second-generation medications (atypical antipsychotics) for mental illnesses have been developed that have improved side-effect profiles and treat additional symptoms of mental illness.
Electroconvulsive Therapy |
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First Schizophrenia Treatments |
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Mental Illness Treatment Factors |
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