CONCLUSIONS This review provides some support to the notion that patients experiencing antipsychotic side-effects are at risk of developing more negative attitudes toward medication .
BACKGROUND Antipsychotics are associated with a wide range of side-effects .
Many patients experience antipsychotics as unpleasant and something they would rather avoid , leading some of them to discontinue taking their medication .
The importance of evaluating the patients ' perspective , especially their attitudes toward medication in the presence of side-effects , has long been emphasized .
However , no definite conclusion has been made to date on the relationship between antipsychotic side-effects and attitudes toward medication .
OBJECTIVES The objective of this systematic review was to determine the best available evidence regarding the impact of antipsychotic side-effects on attitudes toward medication in patients with schizophrenia and related disorders , which include schizoaffective and schizophreniform disorders .
SEARCH STRATEGY The search aim ed to find published studies using a range of data bases .
Differences of satisfaction with medication between patients with schizophrenia treated with typical antipsychotics and atypical antipsychotics.
Many studies have demonstrated that atypical antipsychotics are superior to typical antipsychotics in that they have fewer side-effects and produce better improvement of cognitive deficits and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia . However , most of these studies dealt with objective indices assessed by research ers rather than subjective indices that are indeed important to patients themselves . In 126 patients with schizophrenia , annoyance of side-effects and psychotic symptoms , satisfaction with medication , wish to change medication , and knowledge of atypical antipsychotics  were assessed using question naires . Patients treated with typical antipsychotics complained less of annoyance of poor attention and concentration than those treated with atypical antipsychotics , which can be explained by increased awareness of these symptoms by the patients due to the improvement of cognitive function . There were no significant differences between the two groups in other variables . The present results that satisfaction and annoyance were similar between patients treated with typical antipsychotics and those with atypical antipsychotics , may partly explain why patients hesitated and rejected changing or shifting from typical to atypical antipsychotics . But because 98 of 126 patients did not know about atypical antipsychotics , it is important to educate the patients on the merits of atypical antipsychotics
CONCLUSIONS This review provides some support to the notion that patients experiencing antipsychotic side-effects are at risk of developing more negative attitudes toward medication .
BACKGROUND Antipsychotics are associated with a wide range of side-effects .
Many patients experience antipsychotics as unpleasant and something they would rather avoid , leading some of them to discontinue taking their medication .
The importance of evaluating the patients ' perspective , especially their attitudes toward medication in the presence of side-effects , has long been emphasized .
However , no definite conclusion has been made to date on the relationship between antipsychotic side-effects and attitudes toward medication .
OBJECTIVES The objective of this systematic review was to determine the best available evidence regarding the impact of antipsychotic side-effects on attitudes toward medication in patients with schizophrenia and related disorders , which include schizoaffective and schizophreniform disorders .
SEARCH STRATEGY The search aim ed to find published studies using a range of data bases .