Study Finds Higher-Dose Antipsychotic Polypharmacy Does Not Increase Hospitalization

The risk of nonpsychiatric hospitalization was 13% lower when patients were taking high-dose antipsychotic polypharmacy compared with when they were taking high-dose monotherapy.

Patients with schizophrenia appear to be at a lower risk of hospitalization for physical health issues when taking high doses of two or more antipsychotic medications concurrently (polypharmacy) than when taking just one antipsychotic medication (monotherapy) at the same equivalent dose, according to a study published in March in AJP in Advance. “When patients were treated with high-dose antipsychotic monotherapy, … they had approximately a 20% higher risk of severe cardiovascular outcomes leading to hospitalization compared with periods when the same patients were treated with corresponding high-dose combination therapy,” wrote Heidi Taipale, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the Karolinska Institutet, and colleagues.

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