Antipsychotics and their discontents

Frequently I have complained that the terms "typical and atypical" or "first generation and second generation" antipsychotics were not very helpful.  When I give chalk talks to junior residents and interns about antipsychotics, this is one of the first things that I note.  It is the medicines relative affinities for different receptors that appear to make the difference, not whether they were discovered prior to 1980 or not.  A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to encounter a paper that was published in April of 2023 by McCutcheon et al in Biological Psychiatry titled "Data-Driven Taxonomy for Antipsychotic Medication: A New Classification System."  In this episode, I use their results to guide a discussion of variability in target effects and side effects of different groups of antipsychotics.Please leave feedback at https://www.psydactic.com or send any comments to [email protected] and readings (when available) are posted at the end of each episode transcript, located at psydactic.buzzsprout.com.  All opinions expressed in this podcast are exclusively those of the person speaking and should not be confused with the opinions of anyone else.  We reserve the right to be wrong.  Nothing in this podcast should be treated as individual medical advice.