ReviewActa psychiatrica Scandinavica2022
Symptomatic versus disease-modifying effects of psychiatric drugs.
Review in Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical and Sociodemographic Correlates of Poor Medication Adherence in People With Bipolar Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Bipolar disorders · 2026Pooled it
- New Antidepressant Development in the Treatment of Depression.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Without Informed Consent: The Global Export of a Failed Paradigm of Care.Health and human rights · 2025Article
- The Promise of Long-acting Injectable Antipsychotics for the Treatment of Bipolar I Disorder: The Role of Manic Predominance.Actas espanolas de psiquiatria · 2025Article
- Prednisolone add-on in early phase schizophrenia: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- The conundrum of the connection between severe psychiatric disorders and dementia.Dementia & neuropsychologia · 2025Review
- [Long-term courses in schizophrenia : A review of current results and developments].Der Nervenarzt · 2025Review
- Psychoneuroimmunology of Mood Disorders.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Review
- Psilocybin as a Disease-Modifying Drug—A Salutogenic Approach in Psychiatry.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2024Review
- Drug Discovery in Psychiatry: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2023Article
- Role of FKBP5 and its genetic mutations in stress-induced psychiatric disorders: an opportunity for drug discovery.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveDrugs can be divided into two major categories, symptomatic and disease modifying. This review explores whether and how psychiatric drugs fall into one or the other of those categories, and the implications of those results for clinical practice and research in psychopharmacology.
methodNarrative review.
resultsMost psychiatric drugs have only short-term effects of improving active symptoms. They do not show long-term benefits for the underlying disease, such as improving the course of illness and improving mortality. Evidence is provided for this claim in the treatment literature of antidepressants for depressive illness and antipsychotics for schizophrenia. Developing truly beneficial drugs for disease modification also is limited by the poor clinical and biological validity of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual diagnoses as well as the use of invalid falsely positive maintenance efficacy randomized discontinuation trial designs.
conclusionsCurrent psychopharmacology is limited mostly to symptomatic effects, not transformative treatments for the diseases underlying those symptoms. A change in approach is needed in psychopharmacology practice and research, focusing on long-term disease modification rather than short-term symptom improvement.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.