[The latest antipsychotics--novelties or reiteration of the old?].

Both conventional and more recent antipsychotics are effective in the treatment of hallucinatory and delusional symptoms in psychotic patients. With the exception of clozapine, no major differences in the efficacy of different antipsychotics have been found in clinical drug trials. There are, however, significant differences between drugs in their adverse effects, and the new antipsychotics or dosage forms introduced over the past ten years actually provide novel alternatives for the treatment of patients having body weight issues or cardiometabolic risk factors.

[Update on Current Care Guideline: Depression].

Treatment of depression is based on comprehensive diagnostic, clinical and psychosocial evaluation. Brief psychotherapies (cognitive, interpersonal, psychodynamic or problem-solving) are effective in mild to moderate depression; antidepressants in mild to severe, and electroconvulsive therapy in severe or psychotic. Combining antidepressants and psychotherapy is more effective than either alone.

[Somatic health of a mental patient].

The most common somatic problems in mental patients are physical inactivity, an unhealthy diet, overweight and cardiometabolic disorders. Neurologic problems associated with medication, disturbances in sexual functions and adverse effects associated with smoking may also be significant. Patients suffering from psychiatric disturbances require regular monitoring based on a therapeutic plan perceiving the individual needs, in which the problems caused by the symptoms in seeking medical care and implementation of the treatments must be taken into account.

[Information technology and the riddle of household remedy].

I Adverse effects associated with medication are one of the most common reported problems related to patient care. Problems arise especially when the patient is transferred from one unit to another or when treatment responsibility is changed within a unit. Information technology was expected to solve these problems, but the expectations have not fully become fulfilled.