Normothymotics, “Mood-Normalizers”

Abstract

The action of almost all drugs used so far in psychiatric pharmacotherapy has been directed against psychopathological symptoms or syndromes and not against mental diseases as such, the nosological entities defined by classical clinical psychiatry. In this paper the attention will be drawn towards a different type of drug: compounds with an action specific to a disease rather than to a symptom, and evidence will be presented for the existence within this class of a group that is characterized by being active against affective disorders (manic-depressive psychosis). Normothymotics , “mood-normalizers”, is proposed as a collective name for drugs belonging to this group.