Capsule 20

20. Sedative versus incisive neuroleptics: therapeutic implications
In the classification of Lambert and Revol (Comite Lyonnais), introduced in the 1^st CINP Congress in Rome, in 1958,  neuroleptics were divided into two types: “sedative,” as levomeprazine and thioridazine, and “incisive,”  as thioproperazine and prochlorperazine. About the same time, in the English speaking world, neuroleptics were separated into “sedating,” e.g., aliphatic phenothiazines and “activating,” e.g. piperazine phenothiazines, types. For well over a decade, many clinicians believed that in the treatment of patients with “agitation,” sedating, “sedative-type” of neuroleptics, and in the treatment of patients with withdrawal and retardation, “activating,” “incisive-type” of neuroleptics were the treatment of choice. However, analyses of data from studies with large populations and findings in a specially designed study conducted, in 1967, by Platz, Klett and Caffey, did not find any difference in the therapeutic profile   of “sedating” and “activating” (“incisive”) neuroleptics.