To continue or not to continue? Antipsychotic medication maintenance versus dose-reduction/discontinuation in first episode psychosis: HAMLETT, a pragmatic multicenter single-blind randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Antipsychotic medication is effective for symptomatic treatment in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. After symptom remission, continuation of antipsychotic treatment is associated with lower relapse rates and lower symptom severity compared to dose reduction/discontinuation. Therefore, most guidelines recommend continuation of treatment with antipsychotic medication for at least 1 year. Recently, however, these guidelines have been questioned as one study has shown that more patients achieved long-term functional remission in an early discontinuation condition-a finding that was not replicated in another recently published long-term study.

Methods/design

The HAMLETT (Handling Antipsychotic Medication Long-term Evaluation of Targeted Treatment) study is a multicent

SUBMITTER: Begemann MJH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7006112 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature