No abstract available.
Antipsychotic Agents

No abstract available.
Antipsychotic Agents

No abstract available.
Antipsychotic Agents

As novel antipsychotic agents are introduced, the needs for practical guidelines on switching medications is becoming increasingly important. Cross-tapering is generally the most acceptable methods of switching, although abrupt change may be used in some cases. The important goal of antipsychotic agents witching guidelines is to reduce adverse effect of antipsychotic agents and to minimize the aggravation of the psychiatric symptoms during the switching periods. Recently, drug switching to novel antipsychotics is increased. In this article authors reviewed previous clinical studies on the antipsychotic medications switching.
Antipsychotic Agents* ; Drug Substitution

No abstract available.
Antipsychotic Agents* ; Biomarkers*

No abstract available.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Chronic Pain

Clinical studies have shown various relationships between soft neurological signs and therapeutic effects of antipsychotic drugs in patients with schizophrenia. This study was purposed to compare soft neurological signs in patients before and after administration of antipsychotic drugs and thus to confirm the relationships between soft neurological signs and therapeutic effects of antipsychotic drugs in patients with schizophrenia. Twenty-five schizophrenic patients were treated with antipsychotic drugs for 8 weeks after at least 7 days of drug-free period. The soft neurological signs were assessed by using the Neurological Evaluation Scale-Korean Version(NES-K). The baseline assessment was performed just before the antipsychotic drug trial and following assessments were repeated every 4 weeks until the end of 8-week antipsychotic drug treatment. The therapeutic effects were assessed by using Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS) at baseline just before antipsychotic drug trial, and every 4 weeks until the end of 8-week antipsychotic drug treatment. Total scores of NES-K, scores of its subcategories including sensory integration, motor coordination, sequencing of complex motor acts, and other items were shown to decrease significantly 8 weeks after initiation of antipsychotic drugs. Among those above scores, both the changes of total scores of NES-K and other items were significantly correlated with the changes of negative scores, general psychopathology scores, and total scores of PANSS. Thirteen patients who were categorized as responders, showed at least 20% decrease in PANSS total score. The responders showed more decrement(p<0.05) in total scores of NES-K and scores of sequencing of complex motor acts than twelve nonresponders. These results showed that the scores of NES-K were significantly correlated with the improvement of PANSS score. It is therefore reasonable to suggest that the changes of NES-K scores were significantly correlated with the therapeutic effects of antipsychotic drugs. The changes of soft neurological signs in patients with schizophrenia may be associated with the antipsychotic drug effect.
Antipsychotic Agents* ; Humans ; Psychopathology ; Schizophrenia*

It has been reported that risperidone, an atypical antipsychotic drug, is less likely to induce neurologic side effects than conventional antipsychotics. However, long-term administration of risperidone has been reported to produce severe irreversible neurologic side effects, such as tardive dyskinesia. Tardive dystonia has been suggested as a distinct movement disorder different from tardive dyskinesia and a few cases of risperidone-induced tardive dystonia were reported recently. We experienced two cases of tardive dystonia, which developed in association with the long-term administration of risperidone, and the symptoms of tardive dystonia were slightly subsided after discontinuation of risperidone. It is necessary to be cautious of dystonic symptoms during long-term administration of risperidone.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Movement Disorders* ; Risperidone

This article has reviewed general characters of schizophrenia in late life. Specifically, it has reviewed epidemiology, course, and several results of biological researches and so on of schizophrenia in old age. Then, it has studied effect and safety of antipsychotics for schizophrenia in old age. Conclusively, considering understanding on the concept of schizophrenia and importance of the increasing olds in mental health, the magnitude of schizophrenia in old age will grow serious.
Antipsychotic Agents ; Mental Health ; Schizophrenia

Psychotic disorders due to physical diseases are recently increased and show more complex manifestation than functional psychotic disorders. The psychiatrist's role in dealing with the acutely psychotic patient due to physical diseases is to control the patient's behavior and psychotic symptoms, to delineate the etiology of the psychosis, and to provide appropriate initial treatment and disposition. The control of behavioral and psychotic symptoms can be accomplished through supportive, physical, or pharmacological interventions. But among these interventions, pharmacological intervention shows most rapid responses. Traditionally, pharmacological treatments of these patients have been made by typical antisychotics, which have many adverse effects including extrapyramidal symptoms and therefore, it is problematic to prescribe typical antipsychotics to these patients who are vulnerable to antipsychotics. Recently developed atypical antipsychotics are known to have less drug induced side effects than typical antipsychotics. Studies using atypical antipsychotics to patients who have psychotic and behavioral problems induced by physical disease are increased. We summarized studies which have investigated the efficacy and tolerability of atypical antipsychotics in patients with psychotic and behavioral disorder induced by physical disease.
Antipsychotic Agents* ; Humans ; Psychotic Disorders*