The researchers evaluated the effect of different antipsychotic treatment strategies on risk for relapse in a network meta-analysis of 98 randomized controlled trials involving nearly 14,000 patients.
Both strategies outperformed the strategy of reducing the antipsychotic dose below the standard , which was inferior to the other two strategies. "Currently, most psychiatrists are aware of the benefits of continuing antipsychotics in clinically stable individuals. However, they might face the necessity of changing the ongoing treatment strategy, generally because of burdening side effects, poor adherence, or both," said Ostuzzi.
"The issue of slow versus swift tapering is not yet settled, as there is a scarcity of RCTs that provide very gradual tapering over several months," the editorialists write.