New research findings published in Lancet Psychiatry indicate that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia who are treated with second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) report significant improvement of quality of life, overall wellbeing, and social performance when compared with patients who were prescribed first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs).
In this double-blind, randomized study, investigators recruited participants (aged 18-65 years) who were diagnosed with schizophrenia (ICD-10 F20.X) from 14 psychiatric university hospitals in Germany. Physicians across different hospitals first assessed individual needs of each of the patients (total across all 14 centers was 149 patients), and then assigned them to a group that received one of the FGAs [flupentixol (n=42); haloperidol (n=27)], or to a group that received one of the SGAs [aripiprazole (n=23); olanzapine (n=25); quetiapine (n=32)].
Full story: