We publish an issue on antipsychotics at least once a year, and it’s always a challenge to decide what to cover. There are dozens of antipsychotics, and most of them are approved for mood disorders as well as psychosis. I was lucky to be able to speak with Dr. Thomas Schwartz, whose wealth of clinical knowledge on neuroleptic use is astounding. He has some excellent advice on how to monitor and manage metabolic side effects—especially for the likes of olanzapine and risperidone. He also has some comments on when to consider using the newest neuroleptics. We then move to an oldie but goodie: clozapine, a potentially dangerous but extremely effective drug for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. We update you on how to safely prescribe it, along with a straightforward approach to monitoring side effects. And finally, we cover the “Big Brother” pill, Abilify MyCite, concluding that this digital pill sounds much spookier than it actually is. It’s innovative and may be the forerunner of medications of the future, but it’s hard to imagine too many patients for whom its expense will justify its use. All in all, I think this issue shaped up pretty nicely—let me know if you agree.

Best,
Danny Carlat
dcarlat@thecarlatreport.com