Long-Term Control of Schizophrenia Seen With Ziprasidone

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 30 - The second-generation atypical antipsychotic ziprasidone is well tolerated and shows long-term efficacy as maintenance therapy for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, according to the results of an open-label trial published in the September issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Dr. Antony D. Loebel, of Pfizer Inc. in New York, and colleagues studied 62 patients with a diagnosis of treatment-resistant schizophrenia based on DMS-III-R criteria who were treated with ziprasidone, 40 to 106 mg/day for a year. The patients had participated in an earlier 12-week comparison study, with 32 patients on ziprasidone and 30 on chlorpromazine.

Ziprasidone maintained clinical improvement (no significant symptom exacerbation) in 30 of 41 subjects (73%) who responded to the previous double-blind treatment with either ziprasidone or chlorpromazine, the investigators found.

\"Over 1 year of continuous treatment, ziprasidone was well tolerated, with a relatively low rate of discontinuation, and was associated with favorable effects on weight and metabolic parameters,\" the researchers report. There were no changes in movement disorder measures.

Further studies are warranted to confirm these preliminary findings, Dr. Loebel and colleagues conclude.

J Clin Psychiatry 2007;68:1333-1338.