Cyamemazine also known as cyamepromazine, is a typical antipsychotic

Typical antipsychotic

Typical antipsychotics are a class of antipsychotic drugs first developed in the 1950s and used to treat psychosis...

 drug

Drug

A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...

 of the phenothiazine

Phenothiazine

Phenothiazine is an organic compound that occurs in various antipsychotic and antihistaminic drugs. It has the formula S2NH. This yellow tricyclic compound is soluble in acetic acid, benzene, and ether. The compound is related to the thiazine-class of heterocyclic compounds...

 class which was introduced by Theraplix

Theraplix

Theraplix is a European pharmaceutical company.One of their products is the antipsychotic cyamemazine ....

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1972 and later in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 as well. It is used for the treatment of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...

 and, especially, for psychosis

Psychosis

Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...

-associated anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...

, due to its unique anxiolytic

Anxiolytic

An anxiolytic is a drug used for the treatment of anxiety, and its related psychological and physical symptoms...

 efficacy.

Cyamemazine differs from other phenothiazine neuroleptics in that aside from the usual profile of dopamine

Dopamine receptor

Dopamine receptors are a class of metabotropic G protein-coupled receptors that are prominent in the vertebrate central nervous system . The neurotransmitter dopamine is the primary endogenous ligand for dopamine receptors....

, α₁-adrenergic

Alpha-1 adrenergic receptor

The alpha-1 adrenergic receptor is a G protein-coupled receptor associated with the Gq heterotrimeric G-protein. It consists of three highly homologous subtypes, including α1A-, α1B-, and α1D-adrenergic...

, H₁

H1 receptor

The H1 receptor is a histamine receptor belonging to the family of Rhodopsin like G-protein-coupled receptors. This receptor, which is activated by the biogenic amine histamine, is expressed throughout the body, to be specific, in smooth muscles, on vascular endothelial cells, in the heart, and in...

, and mACh receptor

Muscarinic acetylcholine receptor

Muscarinic receptors, or mAChRs, are acetylcholine receptors that form G protein-coupled in the plasma membranes of certain neurons and other cells...

 antagonism

Receptor antagonist

A receptor antagonist is a type of receptor ligand or drug that does not provoke a biological response itself upon binding to a receptor, but blocks or dampens agonist-mediated responses...

, it additionally produces potent blockade of several serotonin receptors, including 5-HT_2A

5-HT2A receptor

The mammalian 5-HT2A receptor is a subtype of the 5-HT2 receptor that belongs to the serotonin receptor family and is a G protein-coupled receptor . This is the main excitatory receptor subtype among the GPCRs for serotonin , although 5-HT2A may also have an inhibitory effect on certain areas such...

, 5-HT_2C

5-HT2C receptor

The 5-HT2C receptor is a subtype of 5-HT receptor that binds the endogenous neurotransmitter serotonin . It is a G protein-coupled receptor that is coupled to Gq/G11 and mediates excitatory neurotransmission. HTR2C denotes the human gene encoding for the receptor, that in humans is located at the...

, and 5-HT₇

5-HT7 receptor

The 5-HT7 receptor is a member of the GPCR superfamily of cell surface receptors and is activated by the neurotransmitter serotonin The 5-HT7 receptor is coupled to Gs and is expressed in a variety of human tissues, particularly in the brain, the gastrointestinal tract, and in various...

. These actions have been implicated in cyamemazine's anxiolytic effects (5-HT_2C) and lack of extrapyramidal side effect

Side effect

In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequences of the use of a drug.Occasionally, drugs are...

s (5-HT_2A), and despite being classified as a typical, it actually behaves like an atypical antipsychotic

Atypical antipsychotic

The atypical antipsychotics are a group of antipsychotic tranquilizing drugs used to treat psychiatric conditions. Some atypical antipsychotics are FDA approved for use in the treatment of schizophrenia...

.