Switching antipsychotics is as effective as continuing the original treatment for preventing relapse during maintenance therapy in patients with schizophrenia, a potentially practice-changing analysis shows.

Clinical guidelines should be updated to recommend either maintenance strategy over antipsychotic dose reduction or treatment discontinuation when patients are clinically stable, according to international researchers.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 119 studies, the University of Verona-led team in Italy examined data from some 14,000 adults to compare the efficacy of antipsychotic maintenance strategies in relapse prevention.

About 60% of participants were men and the average age was 39 years.