Similarly, the second generation of antipsychotic drugs – the atypical antipsychotics – were found to be just as effective as older typical antipsychotics in controlling psychosis, but more effective in controlling the negative symptoms, despite the fact that they have lower affinity for dopamine receptors than for various other neurotransmitter receptors.Diaz, Jaime. How Drugs Influence Behavior. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1996. More recent work, however, has shown that atypical antipsychotic drugs such as clozapine and quetiapine bind and unbind rapidly and repeatedly to the dopamine D2 receptor. All of these drugs exhibit inverse agonistic effects at the 5-HT2A/2C receptors, meaning serotonin abnormalities are also involved in the complex constellation of neurologic factors predisposing one to the self reinforcing language-based psychological deficits found in all forms of psychosis.
