Antipsychotics have been around since the 1950s and play a major role in the treatment of schizophrenia.
While the drugs have advanced and have far fewer side effects, all of the drugs have a similar way of affecting the brain.
Antipsychotic drugs bind to certain, but not all, dopamine receptors, but do not cause action potentials on the post-synaptic neuron.
While they are bound to the receptors, they prevent or block the dopamine from binding so dopamine has a much smaller impact at the synapse.
Research over the years has come to focus on the ventral tegmental area.
The ventral tegmental area is one of two regions of the brain that have dopamine producing neurons.
Neurons leave the ventral tegmental area and travel to many regions of the forebrain.
It is these dopamine neurons that antipsychotic drugs block.