Comparision of efficacy and safety between paliperidone and risperidone in patients with schizophrenia

AIM To compare the clinical efficacy and safety of paliperidon and risperidone in treatment of the patients with schizophrenia.METHODS Ninety-four schizophrenia patients were divided into paliperidon group(n=47) and risperidone group(n=47) followed up for the 6-week controlled trial.The initial doses of paliperidone and risperidone tablets were 3 mg·d~(-1) and 2 mg·d~(-1) respectively,and the effective dose ranges were 3-12 mg·d~(-1) and 4-6 mg·d~(-1) respectively.The PAINSS and TESS were employed for assessing the effectiveness and safety before the treatment or after 2,4,and 6 week treatment.RESULTS Totally 91 schizophrenia patients were brought into the analyses,47 for paliperidon group and 44 for risperidone group.At the end of wk 4 and 6,the positive symptoms scores,negative symptoms scores,psychopathological subscale scores,and total scores of PANSS in the two groups were significantly decreased(P0.05 or P0.01).The effective rates of paliperidon group and risperidone group at the end of wk 6 were 70%and 66%respectively with no significant difference(P0.05).At the end of wk 2,there were significant differences between the two groups in the positive symptoms scores,psychopathological subscale scores,and total scores of PANSS(P0.01),except for negative symptoms scores(P0.05);At the end of wk 4 and 6,there were no significant differences between the two groups in the total PANSS scores and sub-project scores.The incidence rate of extrapyramidal symptoms(EPS) in paliperidon group was lower than that of risperidone group(P0.01),but no significant difference shown for other kinds of adverse reactons between paliperidon group and risperidone group (72%vs.80%,P0.05).CONCLUSION Paliperidon has the same effective as risperidone in treatment of patients with schizophrenia,and it takes effect more quickly and has less EPS.