Reduction of dose and polypharmacy of antipsychotic medication

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 clinical practice to increase treatment efficacy. However, antipsychotics are also associated with burdensome side effects. It remains unclear if the 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 are available 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 also 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, and Dr. Spyridon Siafis.

Supervisor: Professor Stefan Leucht