Functional Selective D2 Ligands for the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder characterized by abnormal social behavior and failure to understand reality [1]. Clinically, the disorder manifests with a large variety of symptoms that fall into three categories: positive, negative, and cognitive [2]. Schizophrenia affects about 1.1% of world wide population [3]. Although schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders such as anxiety disorder (18.1%) [4], depression (6.9%) [5], and bipolar disorder (2.6%) [6], the symptoms can be very disabling. Therefore, it is often associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality [7]. The average life expectancy of people with schizophrenia is ten to twenty-five years less than for the general population [8]. This is the result of increased physical health problems and a higher suicide rate (about 10%) [9,10].