Maintenance antipsychotic therapy: is the cure worse than the disease?

Author
Publication Year
1976

Type

Journal Article
Abstract

The serious long-term complications of maintenance antipsychotic therapy led the authors to undertake a critical review of outpatient withdrawal studies. Key findings included the following: 1) for a least 40% of outpatient schizophrenics, drugs seem to be essential for survival in the community; 2) the majority of patients who relapse after drug withdrawal recompensate fairly rapidly upon reinstitution of antipsychotic drug therapy; 3) placebo survivors seem to function as well as drug survivors--thus the benefit of maintenance drug therapy appears to be prevention of relapse; and 4) some cases of early relapse after drug withdrawal may be due to dyskinesia rather than psychotic decompensation. The authors urge clinicians to evaluate each patient on maintenance antipsychotic therapy in terms of feasibility of drug withdrawal and offer practical guidelines for withdrawal and subsequent management.

Journal
Am J Psychiatry
Volume
133
Issue
1
Pages
32-6
Date Published
01/1976
ISSN Number
0002-953X
Alternate Journal
Am J Psychiatry
PMID
2021