Since the introduction of atypical antipsychotics, the treatment of schizophrenia has shown important challenges. The polipharmacy seems to be the rule in daily current practice.

The study evaluated the treatment of patients with schizophrenia at discharge from hospital in terms of demographics, severity of psychosis, type of antipsychotics used, hospitalization duration and necessity of other psychotropic compounds.

To determine the augmentation with benzodiazepine and mood stabilizers in treatment of schizophrenia.

There were recorded data for all the patients with schizophrenia treated with conventional or atypical antipsychotics between January 2009 - December 2010 in the Clinical and PII Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology Hospital Brasov, Romania.

Of 482 individuals, 209 (43.36%) received FGAs at discharge compared with 273 (56.64%) treated with SGAs. There were few patients who received FGAs alone at discharge compared with patients who received mono-therapy with SGAs (p < 0.0001). Combination between FGAs and benzodiazepine was indicated in a percentage lower than in SGAs cases (p = 0.01). The most commonly antipsychotics used alone were clozapine and olanzapine (p < 0,005). Amisulpride necessitated frequently both benzodiazepines and mood stabilizers augmentation. Age of patients treated with quetiapine (p < 0.05) was highest in the group and the age of onset was lowest for clozapine (p < 0.05).

The augmentation with benzodiazepines and mood stabilizers are highly prevalent in treatment of schizophrenia indifferently of antipsychotics used but with some differences in the class of atypicals. Age represents an important factor in choosing of antipsychotic type.