What Is an Adequate Antipsychotic Trial? Using Plasma Levels to Optimize Psychiatric Response and Tolerability

Jonathan M. Meyer; Stephen M. Stahl

doi:10.1017/9781009002103.008

5 - What Is an Adequate Antipsychotic Trial? Using Plasma Levels to Optimize Psychiatric Response and Tolerability

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2021

Jonathan M. Meyer and

Stephen M. Stahl

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Jonathan M. Meyer: Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
Stephen M. Stahl: Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside and San Diego

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Summary

Psychiatry is the youngest medical specialty, with continually evolving methods of disease classification, models of pathogenesis, and concepts about evidence-based management. One of the greatest advances in the treatment of schizophrenia comes from sophisticated analyses of clinical trials data, with a view to identifying patients who appear unlikely to respond to the current treatment condition (i.e. the current dose of the psychotropic) regardless of how much time they are given [1]. These analyses are not a trivial exercise, but a concerted effort to minimize unnecessary patient suffering when clinicians delay changes in dose (or medication), waiting for delayed response.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Clinical Use of Antipsychotic Plasma Levels
Stahl's Handbooks
, pp. 114 - 146

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009002103.008 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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