Antipsychotics

D2 blockade is what this subject is built around, with aripiprazole acting at the same receptor as a partial agonist instead. The second generation adds 5-HT2A antagonism, which changes the side-effect profile rather than the core mechanism. They are a subject in their own right because of how they are met here: they are what gets given when a stimulant or psychedelic experience turns into a crisis, and what somebody may already be taking daily.

That use is where the class-level risks concentrate. D2 blockade produces acute dystonia and akathisia, and tardive dyskinesia over long exposure; neuroleptic malignant syndrome is rare and serious. Several members prolong QT. And in stimulant intoxication specifically, antipsychotics lower the seizure threshold and impair heat dissipation, which is the wrong direction for somebody already overheating — the reason benzodiazepines are usually first.