The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a revolutionary new treatment for schizophrenia – the first in 30 years.

Schizophrenia is a serious, chronic mental health condition and the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting 24 million people.

Current therapies, despite being successful in moderating symptoms in much of the affected population, are often poorly tolerated due to side effects.

The new drug, Cobenfy, performs much better than other treatments and with fewer side effects because of the way it reacts with brain cells, discovered thanks to animal research.

Animal studies using mice and rats demonstrated that one of the drug’s ingredients, xanomeline, supported cognitive functions and could control the symptoms of schizophrenia. The drug was used separately up until the late 2000s, however its side effects in humans led to it being shelved.

Over the last decade, clinical trials of Cobenfy have continued with researchers combining xanomeline with the drug trospium chloride. The trials have now confirmed the effectiveness of the new drug, and saw a similar improvement of schizophrenia symptoms, as shown in the earlier animal studies.

Christoph Correll, at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, New York, who helped to analyse data from the trials, said: “This will be a revolution in the treatment of psychosis, and I’m not saying this lightly! Now we will now be able to treat people who haven’t been helped with traditional antipsychotics.”