Preclinical pharmacology of neuroleptics: focus on new generation compounds.

This article reviews the preclinical pharmacology of neuroleptics, with focus on the newer generation compounds: clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine, sertindole, and quetiapine. All of these newer compounds are considered to be atypical neuroleptics, based on certain criteria, which are reviewed. Several hypotheses about the molecular mechanisms that explain atypicality are considered. Finally, the in vitro receptor binding data presented for these and some older compounds are related to the therapeutic and adverse effects of these drugs.