Reduction of dose and polypharmacy of antipsychotic medication in schizophrenia: two related systematic reviews and meta-analyses

The project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (FKZ 01KG1807).

High doses and combinations of different antipsychotics are often used in the clinical practice, with the aim of increasing the efficacy of the treatment. However, antipsychotics are also associated with burdensome side effects. It is not clear if dose and number of antipsychotics can be safely reduced, without losing efficacy.

To investigate this, we are conducting two Cochrane systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

The protocols of the reviews were published a-priori and can be found in the Cochrane Library:

Bighelli I, Samara MT, Rodolico A, Hansen W-P, Leucht S. Antipsychotic dose reduction compared to dose continuation for people with schizophrenia (Protocol). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD014384. (Link)

Bighelli I, Samara MT, Rodolico A, Hansen WP, Leucht S. Antipsychotic polypharmacy reduction versus polypharmacy continuation for people with schizophrenia (Protocol). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021, Issue 4. Art. No.: CD014383. (Link)

The results of the projects were published in the Cochrane Library:

Rodolico A, Siafis S, Bighelli I, Samara MT. Hansen WP, Salomone S, Aguglia E, Cutrufelli P, Bauer I, Baeckers L, Leucht S. Antipsychotic dose reduction compared to dose continuation for people with schizophrenia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2022, Issue 11. Art. No.: CD014384. (Link)

Bighelli I, Rodolico A, Siafis S, Samara MT, Hansen W-P, Salomone S, Aguglia E, Cutrufelli P, Bauer I, Baeckers L, Leucht S. Antipsychotic polypharmacy reduction versus polypharmacy continuation for people with schizophrenia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2022, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD014383. (Link)

Representatives of "BASTA - the alliance for people with mental illnesses" participated in the project, and in cooperation with them we prepared this summary of the project in german : (Summary)

The project is being conducted by Dr. Alessandro Rodolico, Dr. Irene Bighelli, Dr. Spyridon Siafis

Supervisor: Professor Stefan Leucht