A controlled study of olanzapine and risperidol in the treatment of elderly patients with schizophrenia

Objective To compare the clinical efficacy between olanzapine and risperidol in the treatment of elderly patients with schizophrenia. Methods 43 elderly patients with schizophrenia were randomly assigned olanzapine group and risperidol group for 8 weeks. The positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS) was used to evaluated the efficacy, while the treatment emergent symptoms scale (TESS) was used to assess the side effects. Results Findings indicated that efficacy of olanzapine was similar to that of risperidol. The response rate was 90.9% for olanzaine and 90.5% for risperidol. The main side effect of olanzapine was somnolence, with EPS for risperidol. Conclusions Both olanzapine and risperidol are effective and safe in the treatment of elderly patients with schizophrenia.