Efficacy and safety of long-term risperidone treatment.

INTRODUCTION

While efficacy in treatment of the acute phase of schizophrenia is well established for so-called atypical antipsychotics, more data regarding long-term treatment are needed.

METHOD

In a naturalistic, open-label study, 32 patients were included in order to investigate the efficacy and safety of risperidone over 3 years of treatment; 26 of them were treatment-resistant to the previously used antipsychotic drugs (except clozapine).

RESULTS

At the end of the first year, 20 of these 26 patients showed at least partial improvement. At the end of the third year, 17 patients were still being treated with risperidone. While eight patients were lost to follow-up, six relapsed in spite of good compliance. All the adverse events which occurred during treatment were strictly dose-dependent and disappeared when the dose was lowered to 4 mg daily.

CONCLUSIONS

Within the limits of naturalistic studies, it can be concluded that risperidone seemed to be an effective and safe drug for long-term treatment in the majority of our patients. (Int J Psych Clin Pract 2002; 6: 193-197 ).