Efficacy and Tolerability of Ziprasidone vs. Olanzapine in Naive First-Episode Schizophrenia: A 6-Week, Randomized, Open-Label, Flexible-Dose Study
Pharmacopsychiatry, 07/18/2012
Clinical Article
Li YM et al. – Ziprasidone was as effective as olanzapine in short–term treatment for first–episode schizophrenia, and both medicines were well tolerated.
Methods- 80 patients were randomly assigned to a 6–week treatment either with 80–160 mg/day of ziprasidone or 10–20 mg/day of olanzapine.
- The primary efficacy measurements were the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and Clinical Global Impression–severity scale scores.
- The second efficacy measurement was the response rate of treatment.
- Tolerability assessments were also performed.
- 79 patients completed the trial.
- The average dose was 127.5 mg/day with ziprasidone and 19.1 mg/day with olanzapine.
- No significant differences were found between the 2 groups in primary or secondary efficacy measurements at each visit point (all p>0.05).
- Body weight significantly increased with olanzapine, and more extrapyramidal symptoms were observed with ziprasidone (all p<0.05).
- Both medicines were well tolerated, and no serious adverse events were observed.
