[Extrapyramidal effects of antipsychotic drugs]

Abstract

Conventional antipsychotics have been used for many years to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders. Nevertheless, their effectiveness is often associated with a high incidence of side effects, especially extrapyramidal ones (EPS). With the entrance of the socalled atypical neuroleptics, this risk has been considerably, although not completely, reduced. Thus, clinicians should have good knowledge about the pharmacological characteristics of the newer anti-psychotics and their associated risk of worsening or developing motor disturbances. This article reviews these drugs, their pharmacological characteristics as well as the phenomenology of the extrapyramidal syndromes ans treatment of the EPS recommended.