Polypharmacy in Patients With Schizophrenia

Prescribing of Antipsychotic Medication in a Medicaid Population: Use of Polytherapy and Off-Label Dosages

“…28,29 Though not specifically recommended in the product labeling or in current treatment guidelines for schizophrenia 30 or bipolar disorder, 31 the use of polytherapy with multiple atypical antipsychotic medications has been identified as an increasingly common practice. 15,17,32,33 Thus, we were not surprised to find that many patients were receiving multiple antipsychotic medications concomitantly. Indeed, the use of antipsychotic polytherapy was quite common in the population, particularly among younger patients.…”

Association of antipsychotic polypharmacy with health service cost: a register-based cost analysis

“…The recent rise in antipsychotic polypharmacy with prevalence rates reaching 50% [4][5][6][7][8] has fuelled a growing concern because substantial evidence of superior efficacy compared with antipsychotic monotherapy is lacking. Furthermore, antipsychotic polypharmacy is associated with increased frequency of side effects, interactions, medication errors and reduced compliance [9][10][11].…”

Augmentation Treatment with Amisulpride in Schizophrenic Patients Partially Responsive to Olanzapine

“…T Antipsychotic polypharmacy (AP) for the treatment of psychosis is a more widespread therapeutic recourse in clinical practice [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] than might be expected, despite the paucity of data to support it [19] and the consensus statements considering monotherapy as the standard treatment for schizophrenia [20][21][22][23][24]. In a study conducted in japan [18], 90% of patients with schizophrenia were being treated with AP, consisting mainly of first-generation antipsychotic drugs, one with high potency and the other a low potency agent.…”

“…In a study conducted in japan [18], 90% of patients with schizophrenia were being treated with AP, consisting mainly of first-generation antipsychotic drugs, one with high potency and the other a low potency agent. Although this practice varies by as much as 17% in non-hospitalized patients in the United States of America [9], it is of interest to point out that there are studies indicating that AP is a growing phenomenon [11,12]. Also in the United States, in a naturalistic study of AP with atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia, Faries etal.…”