Psychotropic Drug

Name:
Psychotropic Drug
Detailed information:
Any of a number of therapeutic agents that affect the behavior, emotional state, or mental functioning of psychologically disturbed persons. They are widely known as tranquilizers, but this term is no longer accepted as clinically accurate, because the minor tranquilizers (benzodiazepine and glycerol derivatives) act quite differently from the major tranquilizers. For this reason the latter are now classified as antipsychotics and antidepressants, and the term antianxiety agent is applied to the minor tranquilizers. Antipsychotic agents include phenothiazines(chlorpromazine), thioxanthenes, and butyrophenones; antidepressant agents are of two major types, namely, monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors and several tricyclic compounds; antianxiety agents are glycerol derivatives (meprobamate) and benzodiazepine derivatives, e.g., oxazepam.