Do all schizophrenia patients need antipsychotic treatment continuously throughout their lifetime? A 20-year longitudinal study

@article{Harrow2012DoAS,
  title={Do all schizophrenia patients need antipsychotic treatment continuously throughout their lifetime? A 20-year longitudinal study},
  author={Martin Harrow and Thomas H. Jobe and Robert N. Faull},
  journal={Psychological Medicine},
  year={2012},
  volume={42},
  pages={2145 - 2155}
}
Background The prevailing standard of care in the field involves background assumptions about the importance of prolonged use of antipsychotic medications for all schizophrenia (SZ) patients. However, do all SZ patients need antipsychotics indefinitely? Are there factors that help to identify which SZ patients can enter into prolonged periods of recovery without antipsychotics? This 20-year longitudinal research studied these issues. Method A total of 139 early young psychotic patients from the… 
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Does treatment of schizophrenia with antipsychotic medications eliminate or reduce psychosis? A 20-year multi-follow-up study
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TLDR
Even when the confound by indication for prescribing antipsychotic medication is controlled for, participants with schizophrenia and affective psychosis do better than their medicated cohorts, strongly confirming the importance of exposing the role of aiDSP and antipsychotics drug resistance.
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TLDR
Some predictors for successful antipsychotic withdrawal in patients with schizophrenia are suggested, but the very limited evidence base and unequivocally high relapse rates after discontinuation must remain a matter of serious debate for risk/benefit considerations.
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TLDR
There is more evidence in favour of maintaining patients on antipsychotics than on stopping them, and there is an urgent need for more and better research before the question of duration of maintenance after a single episode of schizophrenia can be answered with confidence.
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TLDR
These findings bring into question the current standard of practice that emphasizes long-term maintenance treatment with antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia as the optimal strategy in all cases and suggest that patients without medication are more likely to recover.
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