Treatment of 40 Cases of Schizophrenia with Aripiprazole

Objective To appraise the therapeutic effectiveness and safety rate of aripiprazole in the treatment of schizophrenia. Methods 80 patients with schizophrenia were randomly divided into two equal groups: the trial group and control group.Patients of these 2 groups were given each 10-20 mg·d~(-1) of aripiprazole PO,q.d.and 300-500 mg·d~(-1) of clozapine,PO,b.i.d,respectively.The course of treatment in both groups lasted 8 weeks.The therapeutic effectiveness was assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS),while adverse reactions were appraised with the Treatment Emergent Symptom Scale(TESS). Results The reduction rate of PANSS total scores and the effective rate in patients of the trial group were 50.4% and the 87.5%,respectively,while those in patients of the control group were 49.4% and 85.0%,respectively.The overall curative effects were similar in patients of the two groups(P0.05).Aripiprazole started earlier to act upon negative symptoms as compared with clozapine.The incidences of adverse reactions including oversedation,salivation,constipation,weight gaining etc.in patients of the trial group were significantly lower than those in patients of the control group(P0.05 or P0.01). Conclusion Aripiprazole was shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of schizophrenia.