He labeled the stabilized compound Ro 5-0690, and placed it, on the shelf. In 1957, Ro 5- 0690 was found, literally during a, laboratory cleanup, and submitted for pharmacological evaluation, which showed that it had similar activities to meprobamate. This was sheer luck! Prompted by these findings, the structure of Ro 5-0690 was correctly identified as 1,4-benzodiazepine. Ro 5-0690, the first anxiolytic benzodiazepine, was introduced into clinical use in 1960 with the generic name of methaminodiazepoxide Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (chlordiazepoxide), and the brand name of Librium. It was followed

by the introduction of diazepam (Valium), another anxiolytic benzodiazepine, in 1963. From the late 1960s through the 1970s, sales of diazepam topped those of all other drugs in the United States. The introduction of benzodiazepines vastly extended Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the use of psychotropic drugs, ranging from the treatment of schizophrenia, see more depression, and bipolar disorder to the alleviation of anxiety and other neurotic conditions, making psychotropic

drugs one of the most, prosperous businesses of the pharmaceutical industry. Psychotropic drugs The term “psychotropic” was coined by Ralph Gerard, an American neurophysiologist, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in the mid-1950s,17 for drugs with an effect on mental activity and behavior. During the 1950s, a scries of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical new psychotropic drugs, such as chlorpromazine, imipramine, and iproniazid, were introduced. Their effectiveness in the treatment of schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder was instrumental in shifting the site of psychiatric practice

from psychiatric hospitals to the community. Chlorpromazine Chlorpromazine (CPZ), has a phemothiazine nucleus with a dimethylaminopropyl side chain. Synthesized by Paul Charpentier on December 11, 1950, in the Laboratories of Rhône Poulenc, at the time a major French pharmaceutical company, CPZ was released Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in May 1951 for clinical investigation as a, potentiator of general, anesthesia.55 The basic phenothiazine nucleus was synthesized by Bernthsen in 1883, and later introduced out as an anthelminthic agent for the treatment, of enterobiasis. Expectations that it might be effective in the treatment of protozoal infections were not fulfilled. Instead, Henri Laborit, a surgeon in the French Navy, at the Bizerte Naval Hospital in Sidi-Abdallah, Tunisia, found promethazine, one of the antihistaminic phenothiazines synthesized in the early 1940s, to be eminently suited for the prevention of surgical shock.56,57 It produced “euphoric quietude“ with a ”state of indifference“ and when given prior to surgery patients remained ”calm, somewhat somnolent, and relaxed.“58 In 1950 Laborit.