[Perospirone therapy in elderly patients with schizophrenia].

Perospirone is a novel serotonin-2 and dopamine-2 receptor antagonist (SDA) developed in Japan. Premarketing trials suggested that this agent was effective in reducing positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and had a favorable side-effect profile. However, these trials included only a few elderly patients, so the usefulness of perospirone in this population remains unknown. In this report we describe the treatment of 2 elderly patients with schizophrenia for whom perospirone therapy was efficacious. Case 1 was a patient with acute exacerbation of schizophrenic symptoms after discontinuance of medication. He was treated with 12 mg of perospirone daily and his symptoms reduced markedly from the 4th day of perospirone therapy. Efficacy was assessed by the positive and negative symptom scale (PANSS); all subscales of PANSS (positive symptom, negative symptom, and general psychopathology) reduced and the total score reduced from 78 to 38 by the end of the 6th week of treatment. No side effects such as extrapyramidal symptoms were noted. Thus, perospirone may be a useful antipsychotic for elderly patients with acute schizophrenia. Case 2 was a patient who had severe negative symptoms and extrapyramidal symptoms such as tardive dyskinesia, tardive dystonia, and sialorrhea. She had been hospitalized for more than 7 years. In this patient 12 mg of perospirone was administered daily after 3 mg of risperidone had been tapered off. The negative symptom subscale and general psychopathology subscale in PANSS were gradually reduced after perospirone therapy was started. Extrapyramidal symptoms were assessed by the drug-induced extrapyramidal symptoms scale (DIEPSS), which consists of eight individual parameters and one global assessment, and each parameter is graded on a 5-point (0 = none to 4 = severe) scale. Sialorrhea, muscle rigidity, tremor, dystonia and overall sererity were improved more than 2 points by the end of the 6th week. The clinical course of this patient suggests that the clinical characteristics of perospirone and risperidone may be different, even though these agents are categorized into the same class of antipsychotics, SDA. Because this is a case report, evaluations are limited the clinical properties of perospirone. Further examination is necessary to evaluate the efficacy and safety of perospirone for elderly patients with schizophrenia, who are more vulnerable to the side effect of antipsychotics than the younger population.