Commentary on the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE)

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

Since the introduction of the secondgeneration or so-called "atypical" antipsychotics in the mid 1990s, they have become far more widely used in the United States than the first-generation or conventional antipsychotics. Given the increased costs associated with these newer medications, attempts to delineate their potential advantages and disadvantages from a clinical, public health, and health economic standpoint are certainly important.

When evaluating the effects of antipsychotic drugs in schizophrenia, it is important to recognize the heterogeneity of the illness in terms of symptom patterns, severity, course, and treatment response (both therapeutic and adverse).’ ‹