Comparative study of the effects of aripiprazole and risperidone on the therapeutic effect and patients' weight in patients with schizophrenia

Objective To compare the efficacy and patients' weight after treatment with aripiprazole and risperidone in patients with schizophrenia.Methods 70 patients with schizophrenia were randomly divided into aripiprazole group(n=36) and risperidone group(n=34),with a treatment course of 8 weeks for both groups.Before treatment and at the end of 1,2,4,6,8 weeks after treatment,the therapeutic effects were evaluated by Positive and Negative Syndomly Scale(PANSS) and the patients' weight was measured.Results After 2-week treatment,the scores of PANSS in both groups decreased significantly,as compared with baseline(P0.01).The decrease rate on PANSS was(45±15)% in aripiprazole group and(51±14)% in risperidone group.The total clinical effective rates were 88.9% in aripiprazole and 91.2% in risperidone.The rate of weight increase in risperidone group was significantly higher than that in aripiprazole group(P0.05).Conclusion Both drugs are effective in treating schizophrenia,however,the effect of aripiprazole on patients' weight is less than that of risperidone.