Drug option cuts schizophrenia relapses

For those suffering from the delusions and confusion of schizophrenia, the question usually is not whether their symptoms will return after treatment, but when.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the drug risperidone can keep patients healthier for nearly twice as long as the conventional drug haloperidol.



The US National Alliance for the Mentally Ill estimates schizophrenia afflicts two million Americans. More than $US33 billion ($80.3 billion) a year is spent in the US on schizophrenia treatments.

The study, led by Dr John Csernansky of the Washington University School of Medicine, used 365 patients recruited from 39 medical centres.

Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, which developed both drugs, paid for the study.

Half the patient got risperidone, sold under the brand name Risperdal, the rest received haloperidol, also known as Haldol, which has been in use since the 1950s.

By the end of the experiment, the relapse rate for the people receiving haloperidol was 60 per cent compared with 34 per cent for those given risperidone.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr John Geddes of Oxford University warned that the Csernansky team "studied a selected group of patients whose condition was clinically stable".

The benefits of risperidone "would probably be smaller in routine clinical practice", Dr Geddes said.

But "the preponderance of the evidence now supports the use of risperidone as a first-line treatment for patients with schizophrenia, both to induce remission and to prevent relapse".

- REUTERS

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