According to a new study an older antipsychotic drug has been found to be both cheaper and as effective for some patients with schizophrenia as the newer drugs on the market.
In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health in the U.S.A. the first generation antipsychotic drug perphenazine proved to be less expensive and just as effective as newer medications such as Seroquel (AstraZeneca) and Zyprexa (Eli Lilly).
The $42.6 million CATIE trial aimed to help doctors and the 2.4 million Americans who suffer from chronic schizophrenia find treatments to suit individual needs, is the first study to directly compare several second generation antipsychotic medications and with first generation drugs.
The study suggests doctors should consider the use of older antipsychotics as a first choice for patients with schizophrenia, which is one of a group of psychotic diseases characterised by delusions and hallucinations.
Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, a psychiatrist at Columbia University Medical Center and the study's lead author, says the older drugs justify greater utilization from both a clinical and cost-effectiveness standpoint.
Currently almost all of the money spent on antipsychotic prescriptions is for second-generation drugs which can cost anything from $200 to $300 per month, and are double the cost of the older generic drugs.
Lieberman says doctors should not automatically exclude perphenazine and other older drugs from the range of options.
The second-generation antipsychotic drugs were introduced in the 1990s and of the $10 billion spent on then each year is mainly paid by the government.