INTRODUCTION An ideal antipsychotic would rapidly stabilize acute psychotic symptoms and maintain the patient, without relapse, for prolonged periods in the absence of extrapyramidal, endocrine, diabetic, or cardiovascular side effects, and without weight gain. The dopamine partial agonist aripiprazole is compared with this ideal and with conventional antipsychotics, such as haloperidol, and wi...

Although atypical antipsychotics have become the treatment of choice for schizophrenia, there is no consensus on the mechanisms of action leading to the ‘atypical ’ character of these medications. Atypical antipsychotics are often referred to as ‘novel’, even though the prototypical antipsychotic of this series, clozapine, has been introduced into clinics for decades. Clozapine was found effect...

BACKGROUND Although serious mental illneses are treated with both typical and atypical antipsychotic grugs, trends in their use in psychiatric inpatient population in Israel are unrecognized. The aim of this study was to detect trends in the use of typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs in the Israeli inpatient psychiatric population throughout the last decade. METHODS Data regarding alloca...

With escalating health expenditure and a shrinking purse, there is increased focus on the cost efficacy of still patented versus generic medications in general, and for atypical antipsychotics in particular. In a recent BMC Medicine article, Godman and colleagues presented data indicating poor uptake of the off patent atypical antipsychotic risperidone, arguing for authorities to mandate its gr...

BACKGROUND Delirium occurs frequently in hospitalized patients and is reported to occur at a rate of 10% to 40% in hospitalized elderly patients. The gold standard of treatment is to treat the underlying cause of delirium and use high-potency antipsychotics such as haloperidol to target the behavioral disturbances. Since the development of atypical antipsychotics, many psychiatric conditions th...