Managing Schizophrenia during the Stable Phase: Is There Consensus among Practice Guidelines?

Abstract

Method: We per formed a lit era ture search us ing Med line and Psycinfo da ta bases and Goo gle Inter net search en gine. Results: We iden ti fied 6 clini cal prac tice guide lines (CPGs). All stress the need for an tipsychotic ther apy and psy cho so cial in ter ven tions. Dif fer ences lie in types of an tipsy chot i cs recom mended, du ra tion of an tipsy chotic trial, man age ment of ex tra py ra mi dal symp toms, and types of psy cho so cial in ter ven tions. Ar eas poorly ad dressed by all guide lines in clude defi n ition of the sta ble phase of schizo phre nia, man age ment of ad verse ef fects with atypi cal agents, man age ment of clo zap ine non re spond ers, and man age ment of per son al ity is sues. Conclusion: Pub lished CPGs are help ful in the man age ment of the sta ble phase of schizo phrenia, al though no sin gle CPG se ries ap pears to ad dress all treat ment needs faced by prac tising clinicians.