Haloperidol and thiothixene in the long-term treatment of chronic schizophrenic outpatients in an urban community: social and vocational adjustment.

Social and vocational adjustment are highly important--but frequently overlooked--measures of the effectiveness of psychotropic agents in therapeutic regimens involving chronic schizophrenic outpatients. This 24-week, double-blind study compared the effectiveness of haloperidol and thiothixene in facilitating social and vocational adjustment, as well as in controlling more traditionally studied psychopathological parameters, among 36 urban schizophrenic outpatients. Significant improvement favoring thiothixene was shown on physicians' ratings, ratings by relatives living in the same household as the patient, and patients' self-ratings. Side effects occurred with similar frequency in both drug groups; no patients were required to discontinue therapy because of side effects. There were no clinically significant abnormalities in laboratory values in either group.