Practical guidelines for the use of new generation antipsychotic drugs (except clozapine) in adult individuals with intellectual disabilities

New generation antipsychotic (NGA) drugs introduced to the US market after clozapine (aripiprazole, olanzapine, paliperidone, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone) are frequently used in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, there is very limited research to fully establish evidence-based or personalized medicine approaches for their use in this population. These guidelines take a pragmatic approach to establishing frameworks for their use by utilizing the prescribing information and reviewing the available literature on other relevant neuropsychiatric disorders. In the absence of expert consensus guidance and well-controlled comparison trials, we present a set of guidelines to inform initiation, dosing and monitoring of use in adults. Further, in these guidelines we provide practical information on drug-drug interactions and adverse drug reactions, and a brief review of discontinuation syndromes, potential for abuse, use during pregnancy and cost considerations. We also provide drug utilization review forms for each NGA to facilitate implementation of these guidelines, these guidelines provide a practical and necessary resource for practitioners treating psychiatric disorders and challenging behaviors in adult individuals with ID.

World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) guidelines for biological treatment of schizophrenia, Part 1: acute treatment of schizophrenia

These guide lines for the biological treatment of schizophrenia were developed by an international Task Force of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBO). The goal during the development of these guidelines was to review systematically all available evidence pertaining to the treatment of schizophrenia, and to reach a consensus on a series of practice recommendations that are clinically and scientifically meaningful based on the available evidence. These guidelines are intended for use by all physicians seeing and treating people with schizophrenia. The data used for developing these guidelines have been extracted primarily from various national treatment guidelines and panels for schizophrenia, as well as from meta-analyses, reviews and randomised clinical trials on the efficacy of pharmacological and other biological treatment interventions identified by a search of the MEDLINE database and Cochrane Library. The identified literature was evaluated with respect to the strength of evidence for its efficacy and then categorised into four levels of evidence (A-D). This first part of the guidelines covers disease definition, classification, epidemiology and course of schizophrenia, as well as the management of the acute phase treatment. These guidelines are primarily concerned with the biological treatment (including antipsychotic medication, other pharmacological treatment options, electroconvulsive therapy, adjunctive and novel therapeutic strategies) of adults suffering from schizophrenia.

Treatment of depression in women: a summary of the expert consensus guidelines

Women constitute two-thirds of patients suffering from common depressive disorders, making the treatment of depression in women a substantial public health concern. However, high-quality, empirical data on depressive disorders specific to women are limited, and there are no comprehensive evidence-based practice guidelines on the best treatments for these illnesses. To bridge the gap between research evidence and key clinical decisions, the authors developed a survey of expert opinion concerning treatment of four depressive conditions specific to women: premenstrual dysphoric disorder, depression in pregnancy, postpartum depression in a mother choosing to breast-feed, and depression related to perimenopause/menopause. The survey asked about 858 treatment options in 117 clinical situations and included a broad range of pharmacological, psychosocial, and alternative medicine approaches. The survey was sent to 40 national experts on women's mental health issues, 36 (90%) of whom completed it. The options, scored using a modified version of the RAND Corporation's 9-point scale for rating appropriateness of medical decisions, were assigned one of three categorical rankings-first line/preferred choice, second line/alternate choice, third line/usually inappropriate-based on the 95% confidence interval of each item's mean rating. The expert panel reached consensus (defined as a non-random distribution of scores by chi-square "goodness-of-fit" test) on 76% of the options, with greater consensus in situations involving severe symptoms. Guideline tables indicating preferred treatment strategies were then developed for key clinical situations. The authors summarize the expert consensus methodology they used and then, for each of the four key areas, review the treatment literature and summarize the experts' recommendations and how they relate to the research findings. For women with severe symptoms in each area we asked about, the first-line recommendation was antidepressant medication combined with other modalities (generally psychotherapy). These recommendations parallel existing guidelines for severe depression in general populations. For initial treatment of milder symptoms in each situation, the panel was less uniform in recommending antidepressants, and either gave equal endorsement to other treatment modalities (e.g., nutritional or psychobehavioral approaches in PMDD; hormone replacement in perimenopause) or preferred psychotherapy over medication (during conception, pregnancy, or lactation). In all milder cases, however, antidepressants were recommended as at least second-line options. Among antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were recommended as first-line treatment in all situations. The specific SSRIs that were preferred depended on the particular clinical situation. Tricyclic antidepressants were highly rated alternatives to SSRIs in pregnancy and lactation. In evaluating many of the treatment options, the experts had to extrapolate beyond controlled data in comparing treatment options with each other or in combination. Within the limits of expert opinion and with the expectation that future research data will take precedence, these guidelines provide some direction for addressing common clinical dilemmas in women, and can be used to inform clinicians and educate patients regarding the relative merits of a variety of interventions.