This Month in Psychopharmacology

New Schizophrenia Treatment Guidelines Released by APA

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has just released its latest guidelines for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia. These new guidelines are the first APA schizophrenia guidelines to be published in over a decade. During that 10+ year interim, there have been many advancements in our understanding of schizophrenia and how to approach its treatment, as well as the introduction and approval of several new pharmacologic agents. The Table below provides a brief summary of the “recommendations” (reflecting interventions where the benefits outweigh the risks) and “suggestions” (denoting interventions where the risk/benefit ratio is not entirely clear). Both “recommendations” and “suggestions” are further rated as A (high strength of supporting evidence), B (moderate strength of supporting evidence), or C (low strength of supporting evidence).


Reference:

Keepers GA et al. Am J Psychiatry 2020;177(9):868-72. Abstract


For more information:

This Month in Psychopharmacology: Psychotic Disorders
What You Need to Know About New Treatments and Novel Targets for Schizophrenia