Two medications yield good responses — one expensive, the other cheap.
Despite concerns regarding safety and efficacy, second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) might improve negative symptoms more than first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs) do, perhaps because SGAs have greater serotonin 5-HT2 antagonism. Some researchers have also hypothesized that serotonergic 5-HT3 receptor antagonists might alleviate cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia. Two recent controlled studies investigate these two hypotheses.
The antidepressant mirtazapine inhibits 5-HT2 and 5-HT3 receptors, adrenergic alpha-2 receptors, and histaminergic H1 receptors; and has indirect 5-HT1A agonism. In a 6-week, double-blind study, researchers randomized 40 schizophrenia patients who were responding poorly to FGAs (mean, 8 trials wit…
Reviewing Author
DisclosuresRoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions
Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)
DisclosuresRoyaltiesTextbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, 2nd and 3rd editions
Editorial BoardsUpToDate; Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesNorth American Brain Injury Association (Board Member); National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (Chair of Data Monitoring Safety Board for study of donepezil on cognition after traumatic brain injury)