Personalized Pharmacological Treatment in Schizophrenia: The Role of New Antipsychotics

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neuropharmacology and Neuropathology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 July 2022) | Viewed by 2611

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
2. Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, ASST Spedali Civili of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Interests: clinical psychiatry; schizophrenia; mood disorders; cognitive functions in severe mental illness; cognitive remediation in severe mental illness psychiatric rehabilitation in severe mental illness
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness associated with disability and with a significant reduction in quality of life and with large economic costs related to disability and the impact on work, family, and social functioning.

Pharmacological therapy represents the cornerstone for a successful intervention. Antipsychotic drugs differ in terms of efficacy and tolerability for individual patients and should be administered in conjunction with appropriate psychosocial and rehabilitation interventions. It is therefore necessary to identify and know the techniques of personalization of the therapy, which take into account clinical dimensions, such as negative and cognitive symptoms, and other variables, such as tolerability, adherence, psychosocial functioning, and patient preference.

This Special Issue will provide an update on pharmacological treatments for schizophrenia, from the acute phase to the maintenance and rehabilitation phase, and on the best strategies to provide each patient with a therapy that is based on the latest scientific evidence and, at the same time, adapted to the needs of individual people.

Particular attention will be paid to the need to find a favorable balance between efficacy, tolerability, and adherence to treatment.

Prof. Dr. Stefano Barlati
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • second-generation antipsychotics
  • third-generation antipsychotics
  • long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics
  • tolerability and safety
  • negative symptoms
  • cognitive symptoms
  • functional recovery
  • integrated treatment
  • personalized medicine
  • individualized treatment approach

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 623 KiB  
Review
The Effect of Menopause on Antipsychotic Response
by Alexandre González-Rodríguez, José A. Monreal and Mary V. Seeman
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(10), 1342; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/brainsci12101342 - 04 Oct 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2192
Abstract
Background: It has been hypothesized that, whenever estrogen levels decline, psychosis symptoms in women increase. At menopause, this can happen in two main ways: (a) the loss of estrogen (mainly estradiol) can directly affect central neurotransmission, leading to increase in schizophrenia-related symptoms, [...] Read more.
Background: It has been hypothesized that, whenever estrogen levels decline, psychosis symptoms in women increase. At menopause, this can happen in two main ways: (a) the loss of estrogen (mainly estradiol) can directly affect central neurotransmission, leading to increase in schizophrenia-related symptoms, and (b) the loss of estrogen can decrease the synthesis of enzymes that metabolize antipsychotic drugs, thus weakening their efficacy. Aims and Methods: The aim of this narrative review was to investigate the second possibility by searching PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov for studies over the last two decades that investigated the metabolism of antipsychotics and their efficacy before and after menopause in women or that studied systemic and local estrogen level effects on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of individual antipsychotic drugs. Results: The evidence suggests that symptom level in women with schizophrenia rises after menopause for many reasons beyond hormones but, importantly, there is an estrogen-dependent loss of efficacy related to antipsychotic treatment. Conclusion: Effective clinical intervention is challenging; nevertheless, several promising routes forward are suggested. Full article
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