Abstract

Two 'atypical' antipsychotic drugs, olanzapine (Zyprexa - Lilly) and sertindole (Serdolect - Lundbeck), were introduced in late 1996. Both drugs are licensed for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia, which affects nearly 1% of people within their lifetime.1 Here we discuss whether olanzapine and sertindole have any advantages over conventional antipsychotic drugs2 or the other, older, 'atypical' antipsychotics, risperidone3 and clozapine.4