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Prescribing practices differ considerably, even for conditions with established clinical guidelines. These investigators used study data from 34 sites in 21 states to examine prescribing patterns in 404 patients experiencing first-episode schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorder (mean age, 24; 72% male; 78% with psychiatric-hospitalization histories).
No patients had received antipsychotic medications for >6 months at study entry (mean cumulative antipsychotic treatment, 47 days). Allowed diagnoses included schizoaffective disorder, psychosis not otherwise specified, and brief psychotic disorder; patients with bipolar disorder, psychotic depression, substance-induced psychotic disorder, or psychosis due to a general medical condition…