BACKGROUND Antipsychotic monotherapy is recognized as the treatment of choice for patients with schizophrenia. Simultaneous treatment with multiple antipsychotics (polypharmacy) is suggested by some expert consensus guidelines as the last resort after exhausting monotherapy alternatives. This study assessed the annual rate and duration of antipsychotic monotherapy and its inverse, antipsychotic...

UNLABELLED Atypical antipsychotics are widely used in the pharmacologic management of schizophrenia. Information to guide evidence-based clinical decision making must be continually updated, particularly as new clinical trial data and new antipsychotic agents become available. OBJECTIVE This meta-analysis of oral atypical antipsychotics assessed the relative effectiveness and tolerability pro...

Compared to adult onset schizophrenia, childhood onset schizophrenia (COS) is considered to be a more severe form of the disorder and recent evidence suggests that early detection and treatment can lead to improvement in the outcome of COS. The mainstay of treatment of COS is antipsychotic medications. This article reviews the data with respect to usefulness of various typical antipsychotics, c...

Antipsychotic drugs have been classified as typical or atypical. To achieve an effective antipsychotic effect with typical antipsychotic drugs, e.g. haloperidol, a dopamine D2 receptor blockade of about 70% seems necessary. On the other hand, the prototype for atypical antipsychotic drugs clozapine is clinically effective already at about 45% D2 receptor occupancy. Clozapine possesses affinity ...

BACKGROUND Psychotic conditions and especially schizophrenia, have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Many studies are performed in specialized settings with a strong focus on schizophrenia. Somatic comorbidity after psychosis is studied, using a general practice comorbidity registration network. METHODS Hazard ratios are presented resulting from frailty models to assess ...

This systematic review assesses the effectiveness of antipsychotic medication for improving core psychopathology and behavioral symptoms of anorexia nervosa. The Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group Trials Register, reference lists of retrieved studies and conference abstracts were searched. Four randomized controlled trials comparing typical or atypical antipsychotic medication to o...

The neurologic processes involved in schizophrenia are complex and diverse and the mechanisms through which antipsychotic agents exert their effects have been only partly elucidated. Hyperprolactinemia is a common side effect of treatment with many antipsychotics and is particularly associated with conventional ('typical') agents as well as the atypical antipsychotic risperidone. In contrast, o...

BACKGROUND the objective of this study was twofold:1) Describe the use of antipsychotic treatments in ambulatory patients suffering from schizophrenia in Belgium.2) Evaluate to which extend antipsychotic treatment prescribing patterns are in accordance with published treatment guidelines. METHOD A cross-sectional survey was carried out in 16 Belgian hospitals selected from a sample of 67 hosp...

Delusional parasitosis (DP) appears to be common in India. This condition is more prevalent in elderly people. Currently used treatment pimozide, a high potency antipsychotic, has disadvantage of extra-pyramidal symptoms & tardive dyskinesia in this age group. Hence there is a need to evaluate the use of high potency atypical antipsychotic risperidone in DP. This case report documents the effic...

Objective. Antipsychotics have been associated with increased cardiac events includingmortality.This study assessed cardiac events including mortality among antipsychotic users relative to nonusers. Methods. The General Practice Research Database (GPRD) was used to identify antipsychotic users, matched general population controls, and psychiatric diseased nonusers. Outcomes included cardiac mor...