Which system is responsible for medicating psychotic disorders?
Answer
The nervous system is the site of action used to treat psychotic disorders. Antipsychotics are a class of drugs mainly used to treat schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Medications control mainly positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Positive symptoms related to behavior, thought, perception, and speech (agitation, bizarre behavior, delusions, hallucinations, flight of ideas, illogical thinking patterns, tangential speech patterns), negative symptoms (social withdrawal, lack of emotion, lack of energy, flattened affect, decreased motivation, decreased pleasure in activities, and cognitive manifestations (disordered thinking, reduced ability to focus, and memory difficulties).
There are three classes of antipsychotics which are divided into typical and atypical drugs. First-generation antipsychotics are typical drugs: haloperidol and chlorpromazine. They target dopamine or D2 receptors in the brain. Second and third-generation antipsychotics are the atypical drugs. Second-generation antipsychotic agents work by blocking serotonin and to a lesser degree dopamine; examples of second-generation drugs are olanzapine and clozapine. Third-generation medication works by stabilizing the dopamine system as both an agonist and antagonist; an example of a third-generation drug is aripiprazole.
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