Schizophrenia and drug delivery systems

Schizophrenia is a severe non-curable illness of the brain with serious con sequences if nut properly treated and kept under control. Antipsychotic dru gs have revolutionised the therapy and management of schizophrenia. However , patient compliance rates are notoriously poor due to the nature of the di sease and troublesome side-effects, and are major causes of symptom recurre nce. Although some new antipsychotic agents have been marketed to offer bro ader efficacy with much reduced side-effect profiles, the drug delivery sys tems for antipsychotics are still in the stage of conventional dosage forms , such as tablets, capsules and solutions, and need to be dosed at the freq uency of 2-4 times daily. Doubtless, novel drug delivery systems. such as s ustained and controlled release systems, will be useful for antipsychotics. They should reduce the frequency of dosing, enhance drug bioavailability a nd improve patient compliance. In this article, the specificity and charact erisation of schizophrenia and pathophysiology, drug therapy, and the devel opment and future prospects of neuroleptic drug delivery systems are review ed.