Newer schizophrenic drugs no better than older ones, say researchers

The results of the study, carried out by experts from the University of Manchester, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College and the Institute of Psychiatry in London, found that patients on the older drugs responded to medication just as well over a year as did those on the newer drugs.

More recent medications are said to be more effective with less side effects, but are patent protected and therefore more expensive than the older, mostly generic treatments available.

The NHS funded the latest work to assess whether the bigger price tag of newer ‘atypical’ antipsychotics was offset by improvements in patients’ quality of life or reductions in the use of health and social care services. Atypical antipsychotics, which include risperidone, quetiapine, clozapine and olanzapine, cost at least 10 times more than their predecessors.

The investigators studied 227 schizophrenia patients who were being assessed for medication review because of inadequate response or adverse effects. The managing psychiatrist decided for each patient which drug would be best and the results were measured on a quality of life scale. After a year, the quality of life score was 53.2 for those on the first-generation of drugs and 51.3 for those on the second-generation drugs. The researchers have suggested that further trials are needed.