title: Current therapy issues and unmet clinical needs in the treatment of schizophrenia: a review of the new generation antipsychotics.
abstract: This review discusses the atypical antipsychotics, focusing on the possibility of symptom reduction with a minimum of side-effects. A selective review of clinically relevant reports, studies and meta-analyses is presented. The results from clinical trials suggest that atypical agents improve negative and affective symptoms, and cognitive functioning more than typical antipsychotics, but that the pattern of effects on these domains, as well as on suicidality, appears to differ. In clinical trials, the newer drugs generally have less extrapyramidal side-effects (EPS) than typical antipsychotics. However, amisulpride, risperidone, olanzapine and ziprasidone still show evidence of a dose-related increase in EPS, whereas clozapine, quetiapine, sertindole and aripiprazole do not. Weight gain, increased blood lipids/cholesterol, and insulin resistance/type 2 diabetes are emerging as significant treatment-associated concerns, particularly for clozapine and olanzapine. Sedation has been reported for all the newer compounds except sertindole. The considerable variation in benefit/risk profiles of the atypical compounds can help the clinician to select the most appropriate treatment for individual patients.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry University Center Glostrup, Copenhagen University Hospitals, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lublin
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eberhard
authors.forename: Sten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Levander
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000139:chemically induced; D006801:Humans; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D020380:Needs Assessment; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015430:Weight Gain
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D002784:Cholesterol