Stroup TS, et al. - Researchers assessed the comparative real-world effectiveness of adjunctive psychotropic treatments for patients with schizophrenia taking antipsychotic medications who need a medication change. They used US national Medicaid data from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2010, to perform this comparative effectiveness study. The study sample consisted of 81,921 adult outpatients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Compared with the initiation of a new antipsychotic, a lower risk of psychiatric hospitalization and emergency department visits was observed in association with the addition of an antidepressant; higher risk of these outcomes, however, was evident in correlation with adding a benzodiazepine. These findings thus suggested the achievement of better outcomes with the use of adjunctive antidepressants vs alternative psychotropic medication strategies in the treatment of schizophrenia.