Nonextrapyramidal side effects of novel antipsychotics

The novel antipsychotic drugs offer significant advantages over conventiona l antipsychotic drugs because of their favorable extrapyramidal side-effect profiles, These medications do have some side effects that are clinically significant to our patients with psychotic disorders, however. We summarize d the literature from July 1998 through September 1999 on nonextrapyramidal side effects of these medications, focusing on cardiac effects, weight gai n, diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance, prolactin elevation, sexual sid e effects and neuroleptic malignant syndrome, Curr Opin Psychiatry 13:45-50 . (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.