Double-blind Comparison between Rispendone and Haloperidol in the Treatment of Schizophrenic Patients

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of risperidone and haloperidol in the treatment of schizophrenic. METHODS:A hundred and one schizophrenic patients were randomly assigned to two groups given oral doses of risperidone (2 to 6mg·d-1, 51 cases) or haloperidol (6 to 18 mg·d-1, 50 cases) in a double-blind parallel way for 6 weeks. PANSS and a 4-score clinical impression of efficacy were used to measure the efficacy. Simpson-Angus Scale (SAS) and Treatment Emergent Side-Effect Scale (TESS) were used to measure adverse effects. RESULTS: The response rates were 68.6% and 60.0% for risperidone and haloperidol, respectively (P0.05). Both of the drugs were effective in the positive, negative and general psychopathological symptoms while no significant differences were detected between groups. The SAS total scores were significantly lower in risperidone than in haloperidol group. Less muscular tension, tremor, akathesia were seen in risperidone than in haloperidol group (P0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy of risperidone is comparable to that of haloperidol. The prevalence of EPS of risperidone in recommended dose range is significantly lower than that of haloperidol.