A survey of the history of psychopharmacotherapy is presented.
In Antiquity some psycho-active plant extracts were already known . Since the rise of chemistry in early nineteenth century, sedative drugs were synthesized first. Since the fifties of this century the four groups of psychotherapeutic drugs proper, anxiolytics, hypnotics, antipsychotics and antidepressants have been discovered.
Astute clinical or preclinical observation and the understanding of coincidences, serendipity, has been the basis of these discoveries. Since the prototypes were discovered, no real breakthroughs have been achieved.
