Chlorpromazine

Chlorpromazine is an antipsychotic medication, generally regarded as the first of its class, used primarily to treat psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Its effects arise largely from its action as a dopamine antagonist, though it also blocks serotonin and histamine receptors and the full mechanism is not completely understood. The French company Laboratoires Rhone-Poulenc had been researching antihistamines since 1933 and synthesized promethazine in 1947; chemist Paul Charpentier produced chlorpromazine, compound RP4560, in December 1950, and surgeon Henri Laborit began championing its psychiatric use in 1951 after observing its calming effect in surgical patients. Psychiatrists Pierre Deniker and Jean Delay published influential clinical trials in 1952 showing its effect went well beyond simple sedation, and Rhone-Poulenc released the drug in 1953 under the name Largactil; by 1954 it was in wide use across the United States for schizophrenia and mania, a moment often credited with launching modern psychopharmacology.