Eliciting psychiatrists' beliefs about side effects of typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs

We investigated psychiatrists' attitudes towards various antipsychotic drugs by designing three versions of a case vignette, varying only in type Of antipsychotic described. Psychiatrists were asked to indicate their preferred management option and whether the patient was suffering from extra-pyramidal side effects (EPSE). We found that less experienced psychiatrists were more likely to switch from a typical to an atypical antipsychotic than the more experienced psychiatrists who were conservative, with significantly fewer suggesting a change in medication. The presence of EPSE was inferred significantly more often by the less experienced psychiatrists who received the typical antipsychotic vignette. The vignette method elicited the underlying assumption that typical antipsychotics are bound to cause side effects, while atypicals virtually never do.