When it comes to antipsychotic medications, newer may not always be better

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2014/for-schizophrenia-newer-injectables-not-necessarily-better.shtml

A recent study, published in JAMA by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded researchers, found that the second-generation drug paliperidone palmitate was no more effective than the older drug haloperidol decanoate in treating adult patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. However, patients on paliperidone gained weight and had increases in the reproductive hormone prolactin, while those on haloperidol did not.

When compared to haloperidol, paliperidone had no significant advantages in ratings of severity of abnormal involuntary movements, parkinsonism, or incidence of tardive dyskinesia

Our study confirms that the newer antipsychotics don’t have a lot of overall advantages over the older treatments

7 Likes

My experience: their main advantage is pharmaceutical companies earn more money. I do not personally see their advantage for the patient.

3 Likes

@anon38498012

Typically, we like to leave inactive threads alone and just start a new thread instead. This is different than how some forums are run, but we do it this way because it frequently upsets users to have old topics revived when they are no longer relevant. It can also be frustrating to the person who revived the thread when they don’t get a reply, because the original poster is no longer active or no longer finds the topic relevant. Feel free to start a new thread on this topic.

Thanks,

Volunteer Moderator

@DearZombie