[Recent advances in clinical psychopharmacology]

Several topics on recent advances in clinical psychopharmacology were reviewed. In the field of antipsychotics, the first clinical trial on haloperidol decanoate in the treatment of schizophrenia was performed and the daily changes of blood concentrations of haloperidol were also observed. The relationship between the blood cell concentrations of antipsychotics and the clinical effects was investigated. The treatment of tardive dyskinesia is still difficult. The new compounds of benzamide as antipsychotics attracted attention. Concerning the antidepressants, the recent status of relationship between blood cell levels of drugs and the clinical efficacy was discussed, and the clinical study on sustained release preparation of amitriptyline compared with usual tablets was surveyed. The pharmacological and clinical features of so-called second generation antidepressants and the influences of chronic use of antidepressants on the postsynaptic receptors were discussed. On lithium therapy, clinical importance of blood cell concentrations of lithium or lithium ratio and the changes of lithium concentrations in blood cells induced by the combinations of other drugs was discussed. Recently carbamazepine became an important drug in the treatment of affective disorders. The pharmacokinetics of benzodiazepines was frequently employed as an indicator of clinical practice.