AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Between 10% and 30% of patients with schizophrenia show little symptomatic improvement after multiple trials of FGAs, and an additional 30% to 60% experience partial or inadequate improvement or unacceptable side effects during antipsychotic therapy.

Detailed explanation-2: -Negative symptoms are common in schizophrenia; up to 60% of patients may have prominent clinically relevant negative symptoms that require treatment. Negative symptoms can occur at any point in the course of illness, although they are reported as the most common first symptom of schizophrenia.

Detailed explanation-3: -Introduction. Treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) has been defined as the persistence of symptoms despite ≥2 trials of antipsychotic medications of adequate dose and duration with documented adherence. TRS occurs in up to 34% of patients with schizophrenia.

Detailed explanation-4: -In the most comprehensive meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials conducted in multi-episode schizophrenia, antipsychotics outperformed placebo regarding total symptoms, positive symptoms, negative symptoms, depressive symptoms, quality of life and social functioning.

Detailed explanation-5: -In this real-world cohort analysis, 23% of patients with schizophrenia were prescribed two or more antipsychotic medications. Although prevalence rates in previous studies ranged from 2% to 70% [10]–[21], our findings are consistent with a worldwide median of 19.6% [21], [22].