BACKGROUND Antipsychotics are recognised as a critical intervention for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Guidelines globally endorse the routine practice of antipsychotic monotherapy, at the minimum effective dose. Even in treatment-resistant schizophrenia, clozapine use is endorsed before combining antipsychotics. This aim of this study was to review antipsychotic polytherapy alone, high-do...

This resident physician-led quality improvement project was conducted with aims to improve the health of youth prescribed atypical antipsychotic medications by increasing physician monitoring for metabolic side effects, while simultaneously educating trainees in quality improvement methodology. The plan, do, study, act quality improvement framework was utilized. Baseline metabolic monitoring ra...

BACKGROUND Antipsychotic drugs are considered a trigger factor for autonomic dysregulation, which has been shown to predict potentially fatal arrhythmias in schizophrenia. However, the dose-dependent effect of antipsychotic drugs and other psychotropic drugs on autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the dose-dependent effect of antip...

Ziprasidone is an atypical antipsychotic drug that is believed to have a low propensity for inducing extrapyramidal symptoms, including tardive dyskinesia (TD). Two of our patients developed TD after 23 months and 34 months of ziprasidone monotherapy, respectively. One of the patients had had earlier exposure to typical antipsychotic drugs, but no other predisposing factors for TD were noted. T...

Antipsychotic-induced agranulocytosis is a significant side effect that is known to occur with most of the antipsychotic medications. It usually resolves once the medications are stopped and patients are able to be switched over to another antipsychotic medication. Lurasidone has not been reported to cause leukopenia and neutropenia. This case report is of a patient with a past history of rispe...

Dopamine receptor D2, also known asD2R, is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the DRD2 gene.The dopamine D2 receptor was discovered in 1975 by Philip Seeman who had named it as the antipsychotic/dopamine receptor [1] The dopamine D2 receptor is the main receptor for all antipsychotic drugs. Any drug that does not interfere with dopamine action at the D2 receptor does not have an antipsych...

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 Antipsychotic medications are not recommended for the management of symptoms of dementia, particularly among persons with no behavioral or psychological symptoms. We examine patterns of antipsychotic medication use among persons with dementia across health sectors in Canada, with a focus on factors related to use among those without behavioral or psychotic symptoms. METHODS Using a...

BACKGROUND Because of the debate about whether second-generation antipsychotic drugs are better than first-generation antipsychotic drugs, we did a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials to compare the effects of these two types of drugs in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS We compared nine second-generation antipsychotic drugs with first-generation drugs for overall efficacy (main ...

BACKGROUND In recent years there have been concerns regarding the prescribing of antipsychotic drugs to patients with dementia in nursing homes, due to adverse effects, inappropriate indications and insufficient review. Our practice decided to look at this difficult area more closely. AIM The aim of this audit was to assess whether our prescribing of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes was a...