PHILADELPHIA — A FEW months ago, a patient came to our hospital, seeking help. One of us, Edward, was on the team that treated him. He was pleasant, if slightly withdrawn, and cogent. He was a college graduate in his 20s and had recently been fired from his job as a high school math teacher, because of unexpected absences. He had come to believe that government agents were conspiring against him, and he had taken to living out of a truck and sleeping in different parking lots. By the time he came to us, he was exhausted. A diagnosis became clear: he had schizophrenia.

We admitted him to the hospital, and after a few days, with his symptoms under control, we released him. Unfortunately, we prescribed a medication for him that could cause significant, permanent harm, instead of an equally effective drug with milder side effects — all because he was uninsured.

Schizophrenia, which affects 1 percent of the population and emerges in the late teens to early 20s, is deeply misunderstood. People who suffer from it are often suspected of being dangerous, but this is not usually the case, and antipsychotic drugs are very effective. Our patient was exactly the kind of person who, with the right treatment, could have weakened the stigma surrounding schizophrenia.

Antipsychotic drugs fall into two classes: the older ones, like Haldol, and newer ones, like Abilify and Latuda. Both classes are equally effective at treating some of the worst symptoms of schizophrenia, specifically the hallucinations, delusions and paranoia that cause social alienation. (They’re not effective for treating “negative symptoms,” like low motivation.)