Atypical anti-psychotics in the real world--a naturalistic comparative outcome study.

BACKGROUND

There are few real life independent comparative studies of atypical antipsychotics. We prospectively examined five commonly used atypical antipychotics in the UK, without support from the pharmaceutical industry.

METHOD

Prospective naturalistic systematic clinical evaluation. Patients being newly prescribed atypical anti-psychotics over a one year period were assessed by psychiatrists at initiation and after six months treatment using five outcome measures: clinical global impression; positive and negative psychotic symptoms; drug related side effects; and quality of life.

RESULTS

373 patients participated in total. Olanzapine and risperidone produced statistically significant reductions in all ratings at six months. Amisulpride, clozapine, and quetiapine were also studied. There was limited variance between the different drugs, although some sample sizes were small.

CONCLUSION

Atypical anti-psychotics were found to be clinically effective, and produced similar outcomes. Routine monitoring of outcomes in psychiatry is feasible.