title: Antipsychotics: to combine or not to combine?
abstract: Antipsychotic monotherapy is strongly recommended in the treatment of schizophrenia. However, antipsychotic polypharmacy (APP) is common in clinical practice, and appears to be related to illness severity and duration, treatment-refractoriness, hospitalization status, duration of hospitalization, geographic region and age. Given the high number of different antipsychotic combinations reported in the literature and prescribed in clinical practice, there are perhaps more differences than similarities between such combinations. While the majority of combinations increase side-effect burden, limited evidence suggests benefits of certain combinations.Until more data are available, APP should be reserved for difficult-to treat patients, with careful consideration of pharmacodynamics properties and doses of each drug, as well as close monitoring.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Department of Psychiatry, Kišpatićeva 12, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia, MarinaSagud@mail.com.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sagud
authors.forename: Bjanka
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vuksan-Ćusa
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zivković
authors.forename: Suzana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vlatković
authors.forename: Milivoj
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kramarić
authors.forename: Zoran
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bradaš
authors.forename: Alma
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mihaljević-Peleš
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D006801:Humans; D019338:Polypharmacy; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents