New atypical antipsychotics. Experience and utility in the elderly.

The atypical antipsychotics are a new class of agents with great promise for use in the elderly because of their reduced propensity to cause acute extrapyramidal adverse effects. Treatment of older patients with these agents, however, needs to take into consideration age-related changes in pharmacokinetics and the risks of drug-drug interactions. Additionally, current evidence of their efficacy in late-life psychoses is derived largely from case series and from the extrapolation of results obtained in studies of younger patients with schizophrenia. Controlled clinical studies of atypical antipsychotics in elderly patients are urgently needed.