[Some pharmacological aspects of neuroleptics (author's transl)]

Neuroleptics have several typical pharmacological properties in common. It is logical to assume that these common properties are based on a common biochemical mechanism of action: their postsynaptic dopamine receptor blocking activity, and that they are related to the clinical activities common to all neuroleptics: their antipsychotic activity and their extrapyramidal side-effect liability. Neuroleptics, to a different degree, may possess many other pharmacological properties as well: - antagonism of serotonin, noradrenaline, histamine, acetylcholine - not related to their antidopamine activity. These properties of different origin are probably responsible for the qualitative differences between neuroleptics that are observed in the clinic.