Samei Huda summarises a new network meta-analysis in the Lancet Psychiatry on the efficacy and effectiveness of antipsychotics for schizophrenia in research settings, such as randomised controlled trials, versus real-world and clinical settings.
[read the full story...]Do different groups of people with schizophrenia respond differently to different antipsychotics?
Murtada Alsaif considers a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet Psychiatry exploring the response of different subgroups of patients with schizophrenia to different antipsychotic drugs.
[read the full story...]Sexual function matters to people living with serious mental illness
Rudiger Pittrof and Elana Covshoff from SHRINE (Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Inclusion and Empowerment) explore a recent review, which looks at the impact of severe mental disorders and psychotropic medications on sexual health and its implications for clinical management.
[read the full story...]Antipsychotics for acute treatment of first episode schizophrenia
Elwira Lubos writes her debut blog on a recent systematic review with pairwise and network meta-analyses, looking at antipsychotic drugs for the acute treatment of patients with first episode schizophrenia.
[read the full story...]Antipsychotic efficacy measured by real-world observational study
Tracey Roberts examines whether a retrospective observational study accurately investigates the effectiveness of second and first generation antipsychotics.
[read the full story...]Schizophrenia, antipsychotics and quality of life: measuring the important things
Samei Huda mulls over a recent RCT on the effects of older and newer antipsychotics on quality of life in schizophrenia. The study finds a different result to the 10-year old CUTLASS trial; namely that second generation antipsychotics may be superior to first generation antipsychotics in terms of improving quality of life for people with schizophrenia.
[read the full story...]Lithium for bipolar disorder: the best maintenance mood stabiliser protection against self-harm and suicide?
Michael Ostacher provides a robust appraisal of a recent UK cohort study that suggests bipolar disorder patients taking lithium had reduced self-harm and unintentional injury rates, when compared with patients taking valproate, olanzapine or quetiapine.
[read the full story...]Cochrane find no evidence for as required PRN medication for mental health inpatients
John Baker summarises an updated Cochrane review on ‘as required’ PRN medication regimens for seriously mentally ill people in hospital, which finds no randomised controlled trials that support this widely used intervention.
[read the full story...]Antipsychotics for treatment-resistant schizophrenia
Murtada Alsaif summarises a recent network meta-analysis, which looks at the efficacy, acceptability and tolerability of antipsychotics for treatment-resistant schizophrenia.
[read the full story...]Biological pathways, antipsychotics and schizophrenia
Murtada Alsaif summarises a small cohort study that uses shotgun mass spectrometry proteomic profiling to unravel the molecular pathways involved with antipsychotic response in people with schizophrenia.
[read the full story...]