[Limitations of efficacy of chemotherapies in schizophrenia]

The concept of treatment-resistant schizophrenia cannot be defined as this of resistant depression: schizophrenia is a long-term illness; its evolution is almost always influenced by neuroleptics--but complete recovery is rare. French psychiatry tends to use clinical-empirical criteria, while english speaking studies prefer quantitative criteria, by extended use of clinical and psycho-social scales. The definition of resistant schizophrenia by Kane et al. is a typical example of this method of work. We propose to overview the limits of neuroleptics efficiency in schizophrenia from three groups of studies: a) The effects of maintenance therapy: 24 studies of the last twenty years show that 2/3 of schizophrenics under neuroleptics maintain their remission over one or two years, opposed to less than 1/3 of those who discontinue their treatment. These data seem to be independant from the method of the study, the choice of the neuroleptic drug, the dose and the way of administration (per os or depot treatment). b) A second group of studies tries to define the clinical characteristics of treatment-resistant schizophrenia. French psychiatry uses an empirical graduation of neuroleptics clinical efficiency: these drugs are more effective on hallucinations than on delusional ideas--they are more effective on recent and acute hallucinations and delusions than on those of which course is chronic. Other studies specify predictive factors of poor response to neuroleptics, as few affective symptoms and presence of negative symptoms--a controversed factor. c) Not clinical factors of poor neuroleptics efficiency in schizophrenia begin to be studied.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)