History of Antipsychotics

Over the last 100 years, the range of therapeutic options available to psychiatry has grown significantly. A major advancement in this development was the establishment of modern psychopharmacotherapy, which started in the 1950s and led in combination with sociotherapy and psychotherapy to a significant improvement in the treatment of mentally ill patients. Modern psychopharmacotherapy created the necessary conditions for psychiatry to change from a custodial to a therapeutic discipline. This change was brought about not only by a responsible use of psychotropic drugs in the overall therapeutic context but also by a cultural and attitudinal change, i.e., a lasting change in the mentality of all actors involved in therapy, including the social destigmatization of people with mental illness. Since the treatment with psychotropic drugs has become an established method of psychiatric therapy, the ethical implications associated with their use play an increasingly important role. However, modern pharmacotherapy has had a lasting influence on psychiatry not only in a therapeutic but also in a scientific sense. It has promoted scientific development within psychiatry, allowing for the establishment of new research fields, such as neurochemistry or psychopharmacology. Thus, the biological research approach in psychiatry regained its importance. In addition, the methodology of clinical psychiatric research was improved. Last but not least, modern pharmacotherapy changed the position of psychiatry within medicine. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.