ABSTRACT
Hundreds of double-blind studies of the efficacy of the various antipsychotic (or neuroleptic) drugs have now been conducted. The large majority of these studies suggest that these drugs are significantly more effective than inactive placebos in improving the condition of people with acute and chronic schizophrenia.1 Time after time, in many thousands of treatment settings, clinical experience has shown that the different antipsychotic drugs can bring dramatic relief from psychotic symptoms in most people with schizophrenia. Long-term use of these medications appears to help forestall relapse. Twice as many patients with schizophrenia will relapse if placebos are substituted for their active medication than if they continue to take an antipsychotic drug.2 Yet the overall outcome in schizophrenia, as shown by the analysis of dozens of follow-up studies in Chapter 3, has not improved since the introduction of the antipsychotic drugs in 1954. How can this be?
