It set off a drug race similar to the space race that followed the Russian launching of Sputnik and later the first cosmonaut. Following closely on the heels of clozapine's approval, the Health Science Center and the state hospital began participating in national trials on a dozen more similar drugs. In the early 1990s, Health Science Center faculty were conducting as many as 10 drug trials at once. Today, six drug studies are ongoing. Treatment has changed from institutionalization to staying in the community with brief hospitalizations if necessary.
Hospitalization is the big cost factor.
The San Antonio State Hospital, for example, has reduced its patient population from about 2,000 in the 1970s to about 400 patients today. Treatment of schizophrenia has made a quantum leap with the advent of the new antipsychotics and now the long-term effects are being closely watched.