A control study of aripiprazole and clozapine in the treatment of first-episode schizophenia

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy and satety of aripiprazole in the treatment of schizophrenia.Methods 62 first-episode[1]schizo-phrenics went randomly divided into research group(n=31)took orally aripiprazole and control group(n=31)did clozapine for 8 weeks.Clinical efficacies were assessed with the Positive and Negative syndrome Scale(PANSS)and adverss effects with the Treatrnent emergent Symptom Scale[TESS] before treatment Emergent and at the end of the 2nd,4th and 8th week treatment.Results At the end of the 8th week,total effective rate was 86.1%in the research and 90.3%in the control group respectively,which showed no signifioant difference(P0.05).since the end of the 2nd week,the total score and all facors'scores of PANSS lowered very significantly for both groups compared with pretreatment(P0.01);There was no signifivant difference in synchronization score between the 2 groups(P0.05).Adverse effects of both groups were milder,but total adverse effects significantly lower in the research than in the control group(P0.05).Conclusion Aripiprazole has similar efficacy to clozapine,milder side effects,higher safety.