Antipsychotic Maintenance Treatment of Schizophrenia Patients: Is There a Consensus?

We obtained pharmacoepidemiologic data regarding the antipsychotic maintenance treatment (AMT) of schizophrenia patients through a postal survey sent to all Austrian psychiatrists and neurologists. Drug therapy was considered the most important therapeutic approach in the long-term management of sch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Schizophrenia bulletin 1994, Vol.20 (1), p.215-225
Main Authors: Meise, Ullrich, Kurz, Martin, Fleischhacker, W. Wolfgang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administration, Oral
Antipsychotic Agents - adverse effects
Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use
Attitude of Health Personnel
Biological and medical sciences
Delayed-Action Preparations
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Drug Therapy
Drug Therapy, Combination
Drug Utilization
Health Personnel Attitudes
Hospitals, Psychiatric
Human
Humans
Long-Term Care
Medical sciences
Neuroleptic Drugs
Neurologists
Neuropharmacology
Patient Care Team
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Private Practice
Psychiatrists
Psycholeptics: tranquillizer, neuroleptic
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopharmacology
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - diagnosis
Schizophrenia - drug therapy
Schizophrenic Psychology
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Summary:We obtained pharmacoepidemiologic data regarding the antipsychotic maintenance treatment (AMT) of schizophrenia patients through a postal survey sent to all Austrian psychiatrists and neurologists. Drug therapy was considered the most important therapeutic approach in the long-term management of schizophrenia. However, the majority of the respondents clearly were not satisfied with the current status of scientific knowledge about dosage and duration of AMT. Single-drug treatment with antipsychotics was preferred by the respondents; oral and depot neuroleptics were used with equal frequency. Haloperidol was the oral drug most frequently mentioned as first choice (44% of the respondents), followed by clozapine (14.1%) and thioridazine (9.2%). The proposed mean daily doses showed striking variations among respondents. The proposed mean length of maintenance treatment in first-episode patients was 7.3 months; in multiepisode patients, it was 20.1 months. The results show considerable variation in physicians' attitudes toward AMT.
ISSN:0586-7614
1745-1701
DOI:10.1093/schbul/20.1.215