Aripiprazole: examining the clinical implications of D2 affinity.

Schizophrenia is a prevalent psychiatric illness, which causes significant financial and social burden on the population overall. The development of second generation antipsychotics, such as Aripiprazole, Risperidone, and Paliperidone, has changed treatment practice for many psychiatrists. Aripiprazole has extremely high binding affinity for the dopamine D2 receptor, which is the receptor thought to be responsible for the antipsychotic effect, although Aripiprazole is not the most potent of the second generation antipsychotics.