Psychiatria pre prax 5/2009

Concepts of evaluation of the long-term treatment of schizophrenia

Long-term treatment with antipsychotics is a standard recommendation in the treatment of schizophrenia. The effectiveness of treatment depends on many factors like prevailing symptomatology and type of schizophrenia, patient’s adherence to treatment and natural course of schizophrenia. These factors interfere with an evaluation of treatment effect mainly if the principles of Evidence Based Medicine are applied. The main goal of the article is to mention some aspects of long-term antipsychotic treatment that could help in understanding of results in published clinical studies and transforming these data to clinical practice.

Keywords: schizophrenia, long-term treatment, evidence based medicine