Anticholinergic properties of antipsychotic drugs and their relation to extrapyramidal side-effects.

Psychopharmacology (Berl), 1976/12/21;51(1):15-22.

Sayers AC, Bürki HR, Ruch W, Asper H

PMID: 13446

Impact factor: 4.415

Abstract
The effects of haloperidol, alone and in combination with atropine, were compared with the effects of clozapine, alone and in combination with physostigmine, in a variety of tests commonly used to characterize neuroleptic compounds. It was found that clozapine in combination with physostigmine did not present the profile of activity of a classical neuroleptic agent; neither did haloperidol in combination with atropine present that of clozapine. In fact, some effects of haloperidol (catalepsy) were antagonized by atropine, while others (induction of striatal DA-receptor hypersensitivity) were enhanced. It is concluded that the interaction between dopaminergic and cholinergic systems in the striatum is highly complex, and that a neuroleptic possessing both potent DA-receptor blocking and muscarinic anticholinergic activity, while being less likely to cause parkinsonism in patients, would be more likely to induce tardive dyskinesias.
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