A New Antipsychotic Drug, Quetiapine (Seroquel),in Clinical Practice

Overview

Quetiapine (Seroquel) is a new atypical dibenzothiazepine antipsychotic indicated for the treat-ment of schizophrenia. Like clozapine, quetiapine binds with a variety of neurotrainsmitter re-ceptor sites. Quetiapine has the greatest affinity for a1-adrenergic, H1-histaminergic and s(sigma) receptors. It has also an appreciable affinity for 5HT2-serotonergic a2 adrenergic andD2-dopaminergic receptors. The advance is virtually no affinity for benzodiazepine and muscari-nergic receptors. The beneficial receptor profile of quetiapine is responsible for the unique clini-cal characteristics. The efficacy in relation to schizophrenic symptoms is comparable withhaloperidol and chlorpromazine. Quetiapine produces only a minimum of side effects. The inci-dence of extrapyramidal symptoms is not different form placebo and quetiapine is not associatedwith increases in plasma prolactin levels. Quetiapine treatment is not associated with ECG abnor-malities, haematotoxicity and there are only few significant drug interactions.

Key words:
quetiapine, Seroquel, schizophrenia, atypical antipsychotic.