A number of large-scale antipsychotic studies have been carried out in recent years.
Before the introduction of atypical antipsychotics, all antipsychotics were considered to act on the D2 receptor and all appeared to have equal efficacy. The new generation of antipsychotics all act on multiple receptors and each has a different receptor profile, hence there have been many queries about which of these medications is most effective for the treatment of schizophrenia. The large scale studies were intended to compare the first generation antipsychotics to each of the second generation [or atypical] ones, thus enabling decisions to be made as to which were the most effective. This article reviews these studies and assesses the utility of their conclusions.
Keywords: antipsychotics, effectiveness, efficacy, recovery, schizophrenia, first episode psychosis