QDIS Blog

Some recent reports claim that newer more expensive anti-psychotic medications may be no better than older cheaper ones.

• ScienceDaily: Second-generation Antipsychotic Medications Appear To Offer Little Advantage Over Older Drugs
• Newer Schizophrenia Drugs May Be No Better - Yahoo! News

Both these news stories refer to a recent article in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry which showed that after a year, there was no significant difference between those on older medications (118 patients) from those on newer medications (109 patients). iI was based on a quality of life score and after a year the group on the older medications were 53.2 and with the newer medications was 51.3.

Now granted, the number of patients is small but the results seem to indicate that older cheaper medications could be used in some cases. The thing I think that always needs to be kept in mind is that the results vary with individual patients and this is the reason I have reservations about health plans that try to “encourage” patients to use older medications when studies such as this come out. I understand the need to have access to affordable drugs, but i also firmly believe the decision on what to prescribe should be between the patient and their doctor. I understand the need for a preferred formulary, but think that the hurdles put in place up to prevent the use of newer mediations in some cases is detrimental to the patients health. If a patient tries the first generation drug and it either does not work effectively for them or has side effects, then there should be an easy way for them to get access to the second generation drugs. I some cases, the health insurer may refuse to pay for any costs of these newer drugs. While I think paying a larger co-pay is reasonable, not covering the drug at all is not.

Technorati Tags: antipsychotic drugs, schizophrenia

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