Risperidone: efficacy and safety.

This article reviews the evidence for the efficacy and effectiveness of risperidone in persons with schizophrenia. Nine published double-blind studies compare risperidone with another antipsychotic medication and/or placebo. All were conducted in the acute phase of illness. Risperidone's antipsychotic efficacy is shown to be consistently superior to that of placebo and at least comparable to that of haloperidol and perphenazine for patients in the acute phase of schizophrenia. Further research is necessary to determine the effectiveness of risperidone and its efficacy both as a maintenance treatment and in treatment-refractory and deficit-state patients.