Progress in Defining Optimal Treatment Outcome in Schizophrenia

Historically, schizophrenia has been associated with early-onset, persistent symptoms, and progressive decline accompanied by poor functional recovery. The advent of effective drugs in the 1950s improved symptom control, at least from the standpoint of positive features (e.g. hallucinations, delusions). However, even here the response was limited and efficacy in other symptom domains (cognitive, deficit/negative) was minimal. With clozapine as the prototype, the second-generation antipsychotics arrived in the 1990s with claims of improved tolerability, as well as greater and broader clinical efficacy, all of which was to translate to gains in functional outcome and quality of life. The capacity of these drugs to effect such changes has since been tempered, but it remains that the research and hope generated served as an impetus to redefine outcomes.