CONCLUSION: CNS stimulants may have clinical potentials for improving functional outcomes in patients with schizophrenia and randomized clinical studies evaluating this topic are warranted.
Wouldn’t it make sense, that since stimulants can increase psychotic symptoms, that those patients who do use them were already in need of less hospitalization and less antipsychotic medication before they started using the stimulants? It would be more interesting if they focused on negative symptom improvement, but maybe that’s already been done thoroughly enough. Either way, it would be interesting to see what happens in a controlled experiment with patients with schizophrenia and stimulant drugs.
Vyvanse (Lisdexamfetamine), a product developed by Shire Pharmaceuticals, has shown some positive effects against negative symptoms in a randomized controlled trial (phase 2 I think):
Stimulants are wonderful drugs. And maybe even the only class of psychotropic medications that result in making the patient feel better. Everything else is garbage