Children with schizophrenia are often treated with "second-generation" antipsychotic drugs. But do these costly newer drugs work better than older ones that cost less? The National Institute of Mental Health recently paid for a study by four universities in the United States. The research teams found that the answer was no.

They studied one hundred nineteen people between the ages of eight and nineteen. The patients were observed over an eight-week period. Some received two newer drugs: risperidone or olanzapine. Others received a first-generation antipsychotic drug, molindone.

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The study found that all of the patients experienced about the same improvement. But the risperidone and olanzapine caused serious weight gain. In fact, the institute cancelled the olanzapine research because the patients who took it gained an average of almost six kilograms. The concern was that the weight gain could lead to diabetes.