Risperidol

Effectiveness and tolerability of long-acting risperidone: A 9-month open-label extension of a 12-week switching study from oral antipsychotics
International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 05/08/09

Kim CY et al. - Switching to long-acting risperidone injection from oral antipsychotics was a safe and well-tolerated strategy for maintaining clinical stability in symptomatically stable patients with schizophrenia.

Methods

• A total of 98 patients who had completed a previous 12-week acute phase study were included.
• Efficacy and tolerability were assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), and Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale (ESRS).

Results

• The remission rate of 77.6% (76/98) at baseline and 57.1% (56/98) at the end of the study.
• Of patients who were in remission at baseline, 65.8% (50/76) maintained their remission state until the end.
• The symptom worsening rate was relatively low (11.1%), and there was no aggravation in mean PANSS total and subscale scores.
• Spontaneous treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAE) were reported by 21 (21.4%) patients, and most commonly reported adverse events were extrapyramidal symptoms (N=6, 6.1%) and insomnia (N=4, 4.1%).
• Extrapyramidal symptoms were significantly improved.