Mental letdown for antipsychotic meds
By Bruce Bower
Antipsychotic medications spur surprisingly little improvement in the mental prowess of people with chronic schizophrenia, a national investigation finds. Patients who were prescribed any of several new antipsychotic drugs, often touted as effective at boosting thinking skills in people with schizophrenia, displayed only modest increases in mental agility during the first 6 months of treatment.
The drugs’ effects were no better than the effects of an older antipsychotic substance, according to a team led by psychologist Richard S.E. Keefe of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.