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Long–acting risperidone improves negative symptoms in stable psychotic patients

¹ Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London, UK.
² Tarsi Psychiatric Clinic, Psychotherapeutic Center, Dromokaition State Hospital, Athens, Greece.
³ Department of Psychiatry, University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
⁴ Janssen–Cilag, Medical Affairs EMEA, Beerse, Belgium.
⁵ University Psychiatric Unit, Brescia University School of Medicine and Department of Mental Health, Brescia Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

	Abstract

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the efficacy of risperidone long–acting injectable (RLAI) for reducing negative symptoms of schizophrenia in patients with predominantly negative symptoms at baseline. A subanalysis was performed on data from the 6–month, open–label Switch to Risperidone Microspheres trial. Patients with Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) negative subscale score $21, which was higher than their PANSS positive subscale score, were included in this subanalysis. Improvement in negative symptoms was measured by assessing change in the PANSS negative subscale and a negative factor score. Additional outcome variables included measures in general functioning, quality of life and patient satisfaction. A total of 842 patients were eligible for inclusion in this subanalysis. Six months of treatment was completed by 631 (74.9%) patients. Forty–three (5.1%) patients discontinued treatment due to an adverse event. Negative symptoms were significantly reduced by 6.1 6 6.3 points for the PANSS negative score and 6.1 6 6.4 points for the negative factor score (P , 0.0001 for both). Significant improvements were also noted for total PANSS and other PANSS subscale scores, general functioning, quality of life and patient satisfaction (P , 0.0001). The most common treatment–emergent adverse events (.5%) were: anxiety (6.8% of patients), exacerbation of disease (6.2%) and insomnia (5.7%). Overall, RLAI was well tolerated and associated with significant reductions in movement disorder severity. The treatment resulted in a significant improvement in negative symptom severity and was well tolerated in patients with predominantly negative symptoms, who switched from a stable antipsychotic regimen.

Key Words: risperidone, schizophrenia, long–acting, atypical antipsychotic, negative symptoms

First published on February 28, 2008, doi:10.1177/0269881107082119

Journal of Psychopharmacology 2008;22:254.

A more recent version of this article appeared on May 1, 2008


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