[Effectiveness trials in chronic schizophrenic patients: CATIE. What can we learn?]

The need for practical clinical trials on schizophrenic patients led to the development of the CATIE to study the effectiveness of antipsychotics in the "real world". This study has different phases that are described in this article, detailing their methodology, results and limitations. There were no significant differences between the antipsychotics of first and second generation. Olanzapine appeared as a drug of higher effectiveness but with important metabolic side effects. Clozapine had higher efficacy in patients that had not responded to an antipsychotic administered in a previous phase of this study. Risperidone appeared to be more convenient for patients that abandoned their antipsychotic treatment because of intolerability. Antipsychotics still leave a lot of therapeutic expectations without fulfillment. Other therapeutic measures should be carried out to accomplish a more comprehensive treatment. The treatment for each patient must be specifically designed and the achievement of compliance must be considered of great importance.