Second-Generation Antipsychotics Just as Likely as Older Drugs to Cause EPS

In a study of an earlier randomized controlled trial of antipsychotics, researchers from Yale and the U.K found that second-generation antipsychotics were as likely as the first-generation antipsychotics to cause extrapyramidal symptoms. However, patients in the second-generation group were “dramatically” (30-fold) less likely to be prescribed medication for the management of these side effects. First-generation antipsychotics have the potential to “avoid life-shortening metabolic disturbances” caused by second-generation antipsychotics, but current psychiatrists have little or no experience with the prior generation of antipsychotics, the researchers said. Results will appear in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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