British study: Older antipsychotics offer quality-of-life benefits

A new British study finds that older antipsychotic drugs may be just as good as newer, more expensive drugs.

Patients in the study who took the older drugs actually had a better quality of life than those who took the newer drugs, such as Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel. The British government funded the study, which was conducted by University of Cambridge researchers.

Study leader Peter Jones said that at the least, the study suggests that there is no difference between the newer and older drugs. Last year, a (U.S.) National Institutes of Health Study found that new schizophrenia drugs are neither safer nor more effective than their older counterparts.