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How effective are second-generation antipsychotic drugs? A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials

Overview of attention for article published in Molecular Psychiatry, January 2008
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (92nd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
3 news outlets
blogs
5 blogs
policy
3 policy sources
twitter
6 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page
wikipedia
7 Wikipedia pages

Citations

dimensions_citation
424 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
331 Mendeley
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Title
How effective are second-generation antipsychotic drugs? A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials
Published in
Molecular Psychiatry, January 2008
DOI 10.1038/sj.mp.4002136
Pubmed ID
Authors

S Leucht, D Arbter, R R Engel, W Kissling, J M Davis

Abstract

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that compared second-generation antipsychotic (SGA) drugs with placebo in schizophrenic patients and which considered 13 different outcome measures. Thirty-eight randomized controlled trials with 7323 participants were included. All SGA drugs were more effective than placebo, but the pooled effect size (ES) for overall symptoms (primary outcome) was moderate (-0.51). The absolute difference (RD) in responder rates was at 18% (41% responded to drug compared with 24% to placebo, number needed to treat=6). Similar ESs were found for the other efficacy parameters: negative symptoms (ES=-0.39), positive symptoms (ES=-0.48), depression (ES=-0.26), relapse (RD 20%) and discontinuation due to inefficacy (RD 17%). Curiously, the efficacy of haloperidol for negative and depressive symptoms was similar to that of the SGA drugs. In contrast to haloperidol, there was no difference in terms of EPS between any SGA drugs and placebo, and there was also no difference in terms of dropouts due to adverse events. Meta-regression showed a decline in treatment response over time, and a funnel plot suggested the possibility of publication bias. We conclude that the drug versus placebo difference of SGA drugs and haloperidol in recent trials was moderate, and that there is much room for more efficacious compounds. Whether methodological issues account in part for the relatively low efficacy ESs and the scarcity of adverse event differences compared with placebo needs to be established.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 6 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 331 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 3 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Netherlands 1 <1%
Germany 1 <1%
Austria 1 <1%
Norway 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
Unknown 321 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 57 17%
Student > Ph. D. Student 41 12%
Student > Master 41 12%
Student > Bachelor 36 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 33 10%
Other 79 24%
Unknown 44 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 93 28%
Psychology 92 28%
Neuroscience 26 8%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 19 6%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 10 3%
Other 30 9%
Unknown 61 18%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 72. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 02 June 2021.
All research outputs
#535,182
of 23,835,032 outputs
Outputs from Molecular Psychiatry
#484
of 4,272 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,300
of 160,603 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Molecular Psychiatry
#3
of 25 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,835,032 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 4,272 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.7. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 160,603 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 25 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.