AO3

• Antipsychotics vs placebo

  • support for the effectiveness of antipsychotics comes from studies that have compared relapse rates for antipsychotics and placebos
  • Leucht (2012) carried out a meta - analysis of 65 studies involving nearly 6,000 patients
  • some patients were give a placebo others had remained on their drugs
  • Within 12 months, 64% of those patients who had been given the placebo had relapsed, compared to 27% of those who stayed on drug therapy
• Extrapyramidal side effects

  • typical drugs can sometimes produce movement problems for the patient. They impact the extrapyramidal area of the brain, which controls motor activity
  • Most common are the Parkinson's related symptoms
  • These side effects can be distressing for the patient that other drugs have to be given to control them
• Drug therapies are often cheaper to prescribe than providing hospital treatment or psychological therapies such as CBT and family therapy. This means that more people can be treated with the same amount of money.