https://goo.gl/9m8Az7
Utilizing data from the Chicago Follow-up Study, researchers followed 139 initially psychotic patients over 20 years. Published in Psychiatry Research, the study reports that while antipsychotics were beneficial during acute hospitalizations, patients not prescribed antipsychotics had significantly better work functioning than those who were prescribed antipsychotics.
“Negative evidence on the long-term efficacy of antipsychotics have emerged from our own longitudinal studies and the longitudinal studies of Wunderink, of Moilanen, Jääskeläinena and colleagues using data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study, by data from the Danish OPUS trials the study of Lincoln and Jung in Germany, and the studies of Bland in Canada,” the authors write. These longitudinal studies have not shown positive effects for patients with schizophrenia prescribed antipsychotic for prolonged periods. In addition to the results indicating the rarity of periods of complete recovery for patients with schizophrenia prescribed antipsychotics for prolonged intervals, our research has indicated a significantly higher rate of periods of recovery for patients with schizophrenia who have gone off antipsychotics for prolonged intervals.”
Authors of this study draw attention to previous research that has pointed out the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of antipsychotics after 3-years. The present article adds to previous research presented in the Danish OPUS trial which demonstrated improved functioning and higher rates of employment after ten years in patients off antipsychotics.