Psychopharmaceuticals

Psychotropic drugs are substances that affect brain function and lead to changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior. We include various anaesthetics, analgesics, antidepressants, but also, for example, hallucinogens.

Use in medicine
They are mainly used in psychiatry, but also in other clinical areas (especially neurology), e.g. in the treatment of ADHD, insomnia, chronic pain, Parkinson's disease, etc.

Mechanism of action
Affected brain functions include in particular:

Vigilance [ edit | edit source ]
It denotes a state of wakefulness and a state of consciousness.


 * Psychostimulants - positively affect alertness, therapeutically, for example, in narcolepsy and ADHD;
 * caffeine, ephedrine, meth/amphetamine.
 * Hypnotics / sedatives - negatively affect alertness, induce sleep;
 * midazolam, nitrazepam, zopiclone, zolpidem.
 * General anesthetics including propofol, thiopental, midazolam, isoflurane, N 2 O.

Affectivity [ edit | edit source ]
It belongs to mood parameters.


 * Antidepressants - positively;
 * Anxiolytic - positively;
 * Antimanic − negatively,


 * for a certain phase of (pathological) manic depression, they adjust the pathologically elevated mood.

Psychic Integration [ edit | edit source ]

 * Antipsychotics (neuroleptics) – positively;
 * Hallucinogens - negative.

Memory [ edit | edit source ]

 * Cognitive - improve attention and memory, have so-called anti-amnestic substances ( Alzheimer's disease );
 * Dementogens - negatively.