Guideline 14: Duration of Antipsychotic Treatment

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

The table below summarizes the experts’ recommendations concerning 1) how long they would continue antipsychotic treatment before changing the dose or switching to a different medication if the patient is having an inadequate response and 2) how long they would continue treatment with an antipsychotic after response before trying to discontinue the medication. Note that the intervals listed in the table are based on the median of the respondents’ write-in answers (see Survey Questions 38 and 39). The editors note that again there was a high level of agreement between the psychiatrists and the internists/primary care physicians who completed the survey on this question.’ ‹