The place of antipsychotics in the treatment of Psychosis remains clouded in controversy in spite of more than a half century of study, experience, and debate. Neither Kraepelin’s Dementia Praecox, a progressive deteriorating illness leading to an early death, nor Bleuler’s Schizophrenia, a defined syndrome with multiple types, survives as the dominant model for predicting the course of illness. We now tend to see episodes of psychosis punctuating a variable level of functional impairment over time. While traditional guidelines call for maintenance medication based on relapse prevention, long term studies document that many patients regularly discontinue the treatment. And others feel strongly that maintenance medication itself interferes with recovery. Both of these opposing recommendations are backed by studies, anecdotal case reports, passionate ideologies, and interpretations of the bias of the opposing view. Since these medication have now been around now for a lifespan we’re seeing large population surveys that bear on this controversy.
http://1boringoldman.com/index.php/2015/07/11/after-the-fact/