Schizophrenia is among the most disabling catastrophic medical disorders. The main stay of treatment in schizophrenia is pharmacotherapy. In the last decade there have been newer antipsychotics (second and third generation antipsychotics).  Patients with schizophrenia are treated either with monotherapy or polytherapy depending on various factors like symptoms, duration of disease, response to treatment etc. The use of antipsychotic polypharmacy has raised concerns owing to the lack of evidence for its efficacy and safety as well as variable justifications and practice patterns.

Adverse drug reactions (ADR) to pharmacotherapy is a factor contributing to adherence to medications. The ADRs mainly reported are, extra pyramidal side effects, tachycardia, tremors, rigidity. The extra pyramidal side effects are reported more with the first generation antipsychotics.⁸ The adverse drug reactions in second and third generation are mainly metabolic syndrome.⁸

Quality of life (QOL) is an important measure of psychiatric disorders. Studies have   reported low QOL in patients with schizophrenia.^7,13 Assessment of QOL in patients with schizophrenia coming to a tertiary care hospital and the impact of treatment on QOL is useful.

Precise knowledge of how drugs are being prescribed and utilized, helps to suggest measures to improve prescribing habits. Hence the study of pharmacotherapy and the prevalence of antipsychotic polypharmacy in our set up is relevant. On literature review we found studies reporting ADRs with regards to antipsychotic use in general or individual drugs. Few studies have reported the proportion of ADRs among patients with Schizophrenia in monotherapy and antipsychotic polypharmacy groups. Hence, we also plan to estimate the proportion of ADRs in these two groups in this study.