An international group including people with lived experience appraised recent evidence on antipsychotics for schizophrenia and applied a structured consensus method to four African countries: Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. The output was a priority list of drugs to guide clinical use, research and procurement.
The group noted that little of the evidence comes from these countries, and that trial populations are highly selected and do not reflect real-world complexity.
For Indian readers the relevance is the method rather than the list: the same gaps — trials done elsewhere, narrow populations, access driven by cost — apply here, and a transparent, evidence-based way of prioritising medicines is something state formularies could use.
- Recognise that most antipsychotic trial evidence comes from high-income settings and selected patients.
- Weigh access, cost and monitoring burden alongside efficacy when choosing an antipsychotic.
- Involve patients and carers in decisions about long-term antipsychotic choice.
- Use this as a model for formulary discussions rather than as a prescribing guide for India.
Why it matters
It makes explicit how evidence from elsewhere should be adapted to settings like ours.
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