Recent research has evidence that reveals that a newer class of anti-psychotic drugs may not be as effective in treating patients suffering from the mental condition called Schizophrenia, as older class drugs in treating the illness.
It was hoped that the newer class of drug would result in the patient experiencing less side-effects than those experienced using the older class of drugs. However, with research in this area being scarce, a recent trial has discovered quite the opposite. Claims that the newer class of drug would be more effective than the older class has never been backed up by evidence.
A recent trial involving 227 patients over a 52 week period did not find the newer class of drug to be more effective in reducing the side-effects and improving quality of life. The results showed that patients taking the different drugs showed similar results on a 52 week trial, measuring quality of life and side-effects at exactly the same points in time. It has been found that better quality of life and relief from symptoms from those who took the older class of drug was experienced than those who were taking the new class of drug. Another observation from the trial was that patients showed no preference for one class of drug over the other. There is also no meaningful difference in price between the older class of drug and the new ones.
With such clear evidence suggesting that the newer class of drugs are not as effective as the older class of drug, it would be difficult to see the benefit in prescribing the newer class of drug over the older class drugs. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., from Columbia University in New York's College of Physicians and Surgeons, states that newer anti-psychotic medications are "not the great breakthrough in therapeutics they were once thought to be."
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