These updated guidelines are based on a fi rst edition of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry Guidelines
for Biological Treatment of Schizophrenia published in 2005. For this 2012 revision, all available publications pertaining
to the biological treatment of schizophrenia were reviewed systematically to allow for an evidence-based update. These
guidelines provide evidence-based practice recommendations that are clinically and scientifi cally meaningful and these
guidelines are intended to be used by all physicians diagnosing and treating people suffering from schizophrenia. Based on
the fi rst version of these guidelines, a systematic review of the MEDLINE/PUBMED database and the Cochrane Library,
in addition to data extraction from national treatment guidelines, has been performed for this update. The identifi ed literature
was evaluated with respect to the strength of evidence for its effi cacy and then categorised into six levels of evidence
(A–F; Bandelow et al. 2008b, World J Biol Psychiatry 9:242). This fi rst part of the updated guidelines covers the general
descriptions of antipsychotics and their side effects, the biological treatment of acute schizophrenia and the management
of treatment-resistant schizophrenia