A recent study by Dr Rene Kahn of the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands found that newer schizophrenia drugs are no more effective that the older drug haloperidol. However, the study also found that patients tended to believe the newer drugs were more effective and therefore took them for a longer period of time.
"When we compared newer drugs to older drugs, we found that patients stay longer on the new drugs," said lead researcher Dr. Rene Kahn. Khan found that early studies indicated that 70% of patients stopped taking older antipsychotics while the new study found that 70% kept taking the newer drugs.
"The biggest reason that they stayed longer was that doctors perceived the newer drugs as more efficacious," Khan said. "That's the way real life is -- real life is that patients and doctors perceive their medication to have a certain efficacy."
For complete information on the study check out the March 29th issue of The Lancet.
[Source: YahooNews]
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