Pharmaco-epidemiology in 136 hospitalized schizophrenic patients

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Abstract
The authors surveyed pharmacotherapy in a group of 136 newly admitted patients with DSM-III diagnosis of schizophrenia. They found that nine antipsychotic agents were used; the median daily dose (in chlorpromazine equivalents) was 1088 mg (mean.+-.SD=1428.+-.1260 mg; range=75-6186 mg). Women received greater mean daily dose of antispsychotics than men (1688 versus 1284 mg). Using a Cox model survival analysis, the authors found no statistically association between length of stay and the mean daily dose of antipsychotic medication. The mean daily dose of high-potency agent was 2.7 times greater than the dose of low-potency agents. The excess exposure to haloperidol alone resulted in 16.3% of the overall neuroactive drug costs.