The next new important antipsychotic drug wins FDA nod. Concerns about ziprasidone’s cardiac safety held up approval in 1998 but new clinical data is clears it for release. Schizophrenia, the major target condition for antipsychotic medications, is an immensely tragic disease with a devastating toll. A series of newly developed medications has made it far easier to treat in the last decade, the first real advances since the initial introduction of antipsychotic medications in the 1950’s set in motion the possibilities (for better or worse) of deinstitutionalization and community treatment of the seriously mentally ill. Despite the broad incidence of schizophrenia and the likelihood that your life has intersected with that of someone who has the disease or has the disease in their family, the seriously psychotic are a disenfranchised population; so this revolution does not attract as much public attention as the previous decade’s more “sexy” breakthroughs in antidepressant drugs, starting with Prozac. No bestselling Listening to Zeldox or Zyprexa Nation in the offing, I’m afraid.

And what’s up with this? It seems that marketing consultants have decreed that almost all newly developed psychiatric medications have to have an ‘x’ or a ‘z’ — if not both — in their brand name to be taken seriously these days. Zeldox, Zyprexa and Clozaril are three of the last five antipsychotics. If we include ‘q’, we can add Seroquel. Turning to antidepressants, we find Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Trazodone, Celexa, Serzone, Luvox and Effexor. Zyban is sort of in there too; it’s Wellbutrin marketed for smoking cessation instead of antidepressant use.