Typical antipsychotics (also known as major tranquilizers, and first generation antipsychotics) are a class of antipsychotic drugs first developed in the 1950s and used to treat psychosis (in particular, schizophrenia). Typical antipsychotics may also be used for the treatment of acute mania, agitation, and other conditions. The first typical antipsychotics to come into medical use were the phenothiazines, namely chlorpromazine which was discovered serendipitously. Another prominent grouping of antipsychotics are the butyrophenones, an example of which is haloperidol. The newer, second-generation antipsychotics, also known as atypical antipsychotics, have largely supplanted the use of typical antipsychotics as first-line agents due to the higher risk of movement disorders in the latter.

Both generations of medication tend to block receptors in the brain's dopamine pathways, but atypicals at the time of marketing were claimed to differ from typical antipsychotics in that they are less likely to cause extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), which include unsteady Parkinson's disease-type movements, internal restlessness, and other involuntary movements (e.g. tardive dyskinesia, which can persist after stopping the medication). More recent research has demonstrated the side effect profile of these drugs is similar to older drugs, causing the leading medical journal The Lancet to write in its editorial "the time has come to abandon the terms first-generation and second-generation antipsychotics, as they do not merit this distinction." While typical antipsychotics are more likely to cause EPS, atypicals are more likely to cause adverse metabolic effects, such as weight gain and increase the risk for type II diabetes.