Magellan Health Services Updates and Enhances Guide for Evidence-Based Schizophrenia Treatment; Resource Helps Practitioners Stay Current on Effective Treatments

FARMINGTON, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2004--To help behavioral health practitioners and members stay current on effective evidence-based treatments for schizophrenia, Magellan Health Services, the nation's leader in managed behavioral health care, has updated, simplified and augmented its schizophrenia treatment guidelines. The company has adopted the American Psychiatric Association's (APA's) Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Schizophrenia, expanded on the APA's Guideline with a summary of recently published research and developed a consumer summary that practitioners can use to educate patients and their families about the disease.

"Patients with schizophrenia and their families have a lot to be hopeful about," said Andrew Rudo, M.D., senior vice president of medical services. "Rapidly evolving developments in effective medications and other treatments make it easier for practitioners to manage the illness. However, it also is more difficult for them to stay current on the most effective treatments. So, when the APA revised its guidelines, we combined its contents with our regular literature review process to produce what we believe is a definitive guide on evidence-based treatments for schizophrenia."

The APA's Guideline contains recommendations based on a review of the clinical literature on the assessment and treatment of schizophrenia through 2002. To give practitioners more up-to-date information, Magellan's Clinical Practice Guideline task force conducted an additional review of research published between January 2002 and February 2004. Recommendations from this literature review, as well as key points from the APA guidelines, are summarized in Magellan's Introduction and Update to Magellan's Adopted Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Schizophrenia.

Links to the APA's Guideline, Magellan's Introduction and Update and Magellan's consumer summary can be found on the company's Web site, www.MagellanHealth.com, by clicking "I'm a Provider" and selecting "Clinical Guidelines" from the "Providing Care" menu. The section also contains clinical practice guidelines and consumer summaries on the treatment of suicidal patients, major depressive disorder in adults and substance abuse disorders.

"With the adoption of the APA's new guideline, network practitioners only will be required to utilize the standards contained in one source, current on all aspects of the disorder," Rudo said. Magellan's adoption of the APA's 2004 schizophrenia guideline replaces the two documents Magellan had previously offered as a guide for the treatment of schizophrenia; specifically, the 1997 APA Schizophrenia Guideline and the Texas Implementation of Medications Algorithms (TIMA) Physician's Schizophrenia Procedural Manual.

Headquartered in Farmington, Conn., Magellan Health Services, Inc. (Nasdaq:MGLN) is the country's leading managed behavioral health care organization. The company specializes in managed mental health and substance abuse services as well as employee assistance/work-life programs. Its customers include health plans, corporations and government agencies.