A new consensus statement recommends monitoring antipsychotic blood levels, also known as therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), to inform treatment decisions and optimize safety and efficacy.
The statement, jointly authored by experts from the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP) and the Germany-based Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Task Force of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Neuropsychopharmakologie und Pharmakopsychiatrie, recommends antipsychotic TDM, particularly for specific patient groups and for patients with suspected nonadherence.
“This [TDM] is a valuable and reliable instrument for personalizing treatment, which is an increasing focus today – individualizing and tailoring pharmacotherapy,” lead author Georgios Schoretsanitis, MD, PhD, department of psychiatry, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, Glen Oaks, and Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York, said in an interview.
“I am particularly satisfied to say that this paper adds much knowledge and is a holistic approach, focusing not only on theoretical knowledge but also aiming to make the life of clinicians easier, providing more of an algorithm and decision-making instrument for clinical use in everyday clinical scenarios and problems related to antipsychotic treatment,” he added.
The study was published online May 19 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.