Typical antipsychotic drugs, such as haloperidol and chlorpromazine, increase synthesis of the neuropeptide neurotensin (NT) in both the striatum and the nucleus accumbens, whereas atypical antipsychotic drugs, such as clozapine and olanzapine, do so only in the nucleus accumbens. By using in vivo microdialysis, we now report that acute administration of haloperidol, clozapine, or olanzapine fa...

Objective Human serum paraoxonase (PON1) prevents lipids from peroxidation and functions as an antioxidant mechanism. Malonyldialdehyde (MDA) is the final product of lipid peroxidation and can be used as an indicator of oxidative stress. The aim of this study was to investigate PON1, MDA, and arylesterase (ARY) levels in schizophrenic patients who are taking typical, atypical, or combined (typi...

OBJECTIVE This study examines the clinical and resource utilization effects of switching stable outpatients with schizophrenia from a typical to an atypical antipsychotic medication. METHOD We monitored 43 schizophrenia patients from a community mental health program who tolerated switching from typical to atypical antipsychotic medications. We used the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (P...

BACKGROUND New antipsychotic medications introduced during the past decade-clozapine (1990), risperidone (1994), olanzapine (1996), and quetiapine fumarate (1997)-offer a decrease in serious adverse effects compared with traditional antipsychotic medications, but at up to 10 times the cost. We examined whether ethnic minorities achieve access to these new advanced treatments. METHODS Using na...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to investigate routine administrative data from a major German health insurance fund, Techniker Krankenkasse, which covers 5.4 million insured individuals. Using a retrospective cohort design, this study analysed data collected from patients with a hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia in 2003 (index hospitalisation) in order to evaluate prescription pattern...

OBJECTIVE This study examined trends in the prescription of antipsychotic drugs in a nationally representative sample of physicians in nonfederal office-based clinical practice during the 1990s. METHODS The authors analyzed physician-reported data from annual National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys between 1989 and 1997 using weighted national estimates of physician visits during which antip...

BACKGROUND Use of atypical antipsychotic medications in pediatric populations is increasing. Although previous studies have presented data by age or sex, none has documented sex-specific prevalence by age group. OBJECTIVE To estimate the 1-year prevalence of atypical antipsychotic use by age and sex among commercially insured youths in the United States. DESIGN Period prevalence study, Janu...

Antipsychotic drugs are among the most widely prescribed psychotropic medications for elderly people, particularly for the 5–8% of patients who are in institutions. The antipsychotics are indicated for treating psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia, delusional disorder, psychotic symptoms in mood disorders and for a number of organic psychoses. Behavioural and psychological symptoms in d...