The influence of social capital and evidence-based orientation on psychiatrists' attitudes toward antipsychotic polypharmacy in schizophrenia.

Summary: Many doctors give patients with schizophrenia more than one antipsychotic medicine at a time, even though research shows one is usually enough. Why does this happen? Researchers created a new quiz to find out, asking 152 psychiatrists in Belgium about their choices. They discovered that doctors who work alone or are heavily influenced by their peers are much more likely to prescribe too many medicines. On the other hand, doctors who practice talk therapy (like cognitive behavioral therapy) tend to stick to the rules and use just one medicine. To fix this overprescribing problem, hospitals and medical schools need to look at how doctors influence each other, rather than just giving them more rulebooks to read.