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Davidson M, Carpenter WT. Targeted Treatment of Schizophrenia Symptoms as They Manifest, or Continuous Treatment to Reduce the Risk of Psychosis Recurrence. Schizophr Bull 2024; 50:14-21. [PMID: 37929893 PMCID: PMC10754173 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbad145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2023]
Abstract
Current pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia employs drugs that interfere with dopamine neurotransmission, aiming to suppress acute exacerbation of psychosis and maintenance treatment to reduce the risk of psychosis recurrence. According to this treatment scheme, available psychotropic drugs intended to treat negative symptoms, cognitive impairment, or anxiety are administered as add-ons to treatment with antipsychotics. However, an alternative treatment scheme proposes a targeted or intermittent treatment approach, by which antipsychotic drugs are administered upon psychosis exacerbation and discontinued upon remission or stabilization, while negative symptoms, cognitive impairment, or anxiety are treated with specific psychotropics as monotherapy. Along these lines, antipsychotics are renewed only in the event of recurrence of psychotic symptoms. This 50-year-old debate between targeted and continuous treatment schemes arises from disagreements about interpreting scientific evidence and discordant views regarding benefit/risk assessment. Among the debate's questions are: (1) what is the percentage of individuals who can maintain stability without antipsychotic maintenance treatment, and what is the percentage of those who exacerbate despite antipsychotic treatment? (2) how to interpret results of placebo-controlled 9- to 18-month-long maintenance trials in a life-long chronic disorder, and how to interpret results of the targeted trials, some of which are open label or not randomized; (3) how to weigh the decreased risk for psychotic recurrence vs the almost certainty of adverse effects on patient's quality of life. Patients' profiles, preferences, and circumstances of the care provision should be considered as the targeted vs continuous treatment options are considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Davidson
- Department of Basic and Clinical Sciences, Psychiatry, University of Nicosia Medical School, 2414, Nicosia, Cyprus and Minerva Neurosciences, 1500 District Avenue, Burlington, MA 01803, USA
| | - William T Carpenter
- University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Baltimore, MD, USA
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Lin JY, Yeh LL, Pan YJ. Exposure to psychotropic medications and mortality in schizophrenia: a 5-year national cohort study. Psychol Med 2023; 53:5528-5537. [PMID: 36134676 PMCID: PMC10482725 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291722002732] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 08/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Relatively few studies have explored the differential contributions of the accumulative dosage of psychotropic medications on mortality in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS We aimed to explore the effects of the exposure dosage of psychotropic medications on mortality during a follow-up period of 5 years with a national cohort of individuals with schizophrenia in 2010. Causes of death were linked through Taiwan's National Mortality Registry. The mean defined daily dose of antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and sedative-hypnotics, were calculated and survival analyses were conducted. RESULTS A total of 102 964 individuals (54 151 men, 52.59%) with schizophrenia were included. Compared to patients with no exposure to antipsychotics, those with antipsychotic exposure had better survival outcomes, regardless of antipsychotic dosage. Antidepressant exposure, in low and moderate dosage, was associated with decreased all-cause mortality; exposure to mood stabilizers appeared to be associated with an increase in all-cause mortality. Although 89.7% of the patients had been prescribed sedative-hypnotics, exposure to sedative-hypnotics was associated with dose-related increased mortality risk [hazard ratio (HR) in low dose group: 1.16, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.27; HR in moderate dose: 1.32, 95% CI 1.21-1.44; HR in high dose: 1.83, 95% CI 1.67-2.01)]. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that in the treatment of schizophrenia, antipsychotics and antidepressants are associated with lower mortality when using adequate dosages and mood stabilizers and sedative-hypnotics with higher mortality compared with no use. Furthermore, exposure to sedative-hypnotics is associated with a dose-related increased mortality risk which warrants clinical attention and further study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji-Yu Lin
- Department of Psychiatry, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Ling-Ling Yeh
- Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Yi-Ju Pan
- Department of Psychiatry, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan
- Institute of Public Health, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
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Katz IR, Szymanski BR, Marder SR, Shotwell A, Hein TC, McCarthy JF, Bowersox NW. Comparative risks of all-cause mortality for Veterans with schizophrenia with ongoing receipt of clozapine and other antipsychotic medications. Psychiatry Res 2022; 313:114590. [PMID: 35567853 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2021] [Revised: 02/15/2022] [Accepted: 04/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
To guide care for patients with schizophrenia, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) evaluated the associations between current or recent use of clozapine and all-cause mortality and explored associations for other antipsychotic medications. Using a case-control design, patients with schizophrenia who died in fiscal years 2014-2018 were matched on age, sex, race, and VHA facility to up to 10 controls who were alive on the case's date of death (index date). Medication coverage during the 91 days before the index date was classified as none, partial (1-44 days), and consistent (45-91 days). Medication coverage patterns during the index period were compared to coverage patterns during the period of 92-182 days prior to index date with each medication coverage classified as no change, no coverage, increased, or decreased. Conditional logistic regression analyses controlling for patient characteristics identified no associations of consistent or increasing clozapine coverage with mortality; partial and decreasing coverage were associated with greater mortality and these effects did not differ from those of other the medications considered. Exploratory analyses considering non-clozapine antipsychotic agents suggest that consistent coverage by olanzapine may be associated with increased mortality, that mortality associated with olanzapine may be greater than aripiprazole, and that this effect can be attributed primarily to patients with diabetes. Further study of this topic is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ira R Katz
- Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Washington, DC, USA
| | - Benjamin R Szymanski
- Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Rd, Building 16, Room 016-233W, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Stephen R Marder
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Veterans Affairs Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Abigail Shotwell
- Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Rd, Building 16, Room 016-233W, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Tyler C Hein
- Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Rd, Building 16, Room 016-233W, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - John F McCarthy
- Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Rd, Building 16, Room 016-233W, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Nicholas W Bowersox
- Serious Mental Illness Treatment Resource and Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Rd, Building 16, Room 016-233W, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
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