Antipsychotics for schizophrenia: a clinical overview

By Flavio Guzmán, MD
Psychiatry Resident. Mental Health Teaching Hospital “Dr. Carlos Pereyra”. Mendoza, Argentina

This video lecture is a brief summary of the most recent literature on the evolving field of pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia (see references and further reading). In this video I discuss the following topics:

• Psychosis and schizophrenia. Why is psychopathology important for understanding benefits and limitations of antipsychotic therapy.
• The latest findings about effectiveness of first and second generation antipsychotics.
• Pharmacological treatment of cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia.
• Goals of treatment and factors that influence prescribing.

Part 1. Psychopathological considerations: psychosis, domains of schizophrenia and antipsychotics

Video length: 2:11

Part 2. Treating positive, negative and cognitive symptoms: the role of first and second generation antipsychotics

Video length: 2:04

Part 3. Goals of antipsychotic treatment & how adverse effects profiles influence prescribing

Video length: 2:53

References and further reading

Gründer G, Hippius H, Carlsson A. The “atypicality” of antipsychotics: a concept re-examined and re-defined. Nature Rev Drug Disc 8:197-202, 2009.

Schatzberg, AF., Cole, JO, and DeBattista, C. Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology. 7th ed.American Psychiatric Publishing, 2010.

Janicak, P G., S R. Marder, and M N. Pavuluri. Principles and Practice of Psychopharmacotherapy. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010.