Doses of antipsychotics in maintenance phase compared to doses in acute phase treatment

Maintenance phase treatment with antipsychotic medications is recommended for all patients with schizophrenia. From clinical perspective and based on studies, small proportion of patients after first psychotic episode and far smaller proportion of patients with multiple psychotic episodes do not experience relapse. The use of antipsychotic medications as maintenance treatment reduces relapse rates. The optimal doses of antipsychotics in maintenance phase stay unclear although investigators attempted to identify doses sufficiently high to prevent relapses and at the same time sufficiently low to avoid adverse effects. In maintaining remission, it is usually recommended to use doses of antipsychotic medications that were effective in acute phase treatment as long as they are well-tolerated, but few studies and clinical experience show that lower doses than those usual for the acute phase are sufficient for maintenance treatment. The aim is to investigate doses of antipsychotics used in maintenance phase compared to doses used in acute phase treatment.