Pimozide 1971.

Study characteristics
Methods	Randomisation: randomised, no further details. Allocation: procedure not described. Blinding: double‐blind, no further details. Duration: 12 weeks. Design: parallel. Location: single‐centre. Setting: inpatients.
Participants	Diagnosis: chronic schizophrenia (clinical diagnosis), receiving maintenance treatment. N = 20. Gender: only male participants. Age: 42.6 years. History: duration stable‐n.i., duration ill‐ n.i., mean duration of hospitalisation‐ n.i., number of previous hospitalisations‐ n.i., age at onset‐ n.i., severity of illness‐ mean BPRS total score 34.6, mean CGI‐S total score 3.73, baseline antipsychotic dose‐ n.i., remission at baseline‐ 40% were in remission at baseline (CGI‐S defined).
Interventions	1. Drug: Pimozide. N = 10 Flexible dose. Mean dose: 40 mg/day. 2. Placebo: duration of taper: abrupt withdrawal. N = 10. Rescue medication: n.i.
Outcomes	Examined Leaving the study early. Global state ‐ number of participants improved (CGI‐I defined). Global state ‐ number of participants in remission (CGI‐S defined). Adverse events. Unable to use/Not included Mental state: BPRS (no predefined outcome of interest) Behavior: NOSIE (no predefined outcome of interest).
Notes	Sponsored by McNeil Laboratories.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Randomised, no further details.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Procedure not described.
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Double‐blind, no further details.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Subjective outcomes	Unclear risk	Double‐blind, no further details.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) Objective outcomes	Low risk	Double‐blind, no further details.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Only study completers were used in the final analysis, but as there was only one dropout (in the drug arm, before receiving the first dose of medication) this was not necessarily a problem.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	No evidence for selective reporting.
Other bias	High risk	The pimozide doses (40 mg/day) were very high for current standards.