The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Latuda (lurasidone HCl) tablets for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia affects about 1 percent of the U.S. population, ages 18 years and older, in a given year. The most prominent symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, disordered thinking and behavior, and suspiciousness. Hearing voices that other people don't hear is the most common type of hallucination. These experiences can make people with the disorder fearful and withdrawn.

Latuda is included in the atypical antipsychotic class of drugs. All atypical antipsychotics contain a boxed warning alerting prescribers to an increased risk of death associated with off-label use of these drugs to treat behavioral problems in older people with dementia-related psychosis. No drug in this class is approved to treat patients with dementia-related psychosis.

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