Effectiveness of a treatment guideline for schizophrenia in adolescents: Lessons from a middle-income country.

Introduction: Treatment guidelines for schizophrenia represent a standard way to manage patients, especially in countries with limited staff resources. However, they have not been compared on their efficacy with treatment as usual, despite adult studies suggesting they can be more effective.

Methods: Inpatient and outpatient adolescents with schizophrenia were randomly allocated to be either treated according to a guideline-based treatment ( n = 43) or treatment as usual ( n = 44).