§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the timetable is for the Cutlass review of medicines; [13787]
(2) how many patients have been recruited to the Cutlass review (a) to take the existing medicines and (b) to take the atypical medicines; [13786]
(3) what assessment he has made as to the opinion of psychiatrists on the efficacy of atypical anti-psychotic medicines. [13783]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 12 November 2001]:A multi-centred, randomised, controlled trial of the Cost Utility of The Latest Antipsychotics in Severe Schizophrenia (CUTLASS) is being conducted under the Department's health technology assessment programme. The trial, which compares new (atypical) drugs with conventional drugs, started in 1999 and is due to end in November 2002. The design of the trial means that it is not possible to extract information before the trial is completed about how many patients have taken which drugs. It is similarly not possible to provide information on results until the trial is ended.