Refractory schizophrenia: adding aripiprazole to clozapine reduces negative but not overall symptoms.

摘要

Question: Does anpiprazole improve the antipsychotic etrect of clozapine without increasing the risk of major adverse events in people with refractory schizophrenia?Patients: 61 Korean people, aged 18-65 years, with DSM-IV schizophrenia, a history of treatment failure, partial responsiveness to long term clozapine therapy (3=1 year) and taking a stable clozapine dose for at least 3 months. Treatment failure was defined as persistent psychotic symptoms after at least two different antipsychotics at equivalent to 3=600 mg/day chlorpromazine for 3=6 weeks. Participants had to have a Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) score of 3=35 or >2 global rating items on the Schedule for Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) score 5=3 (see online notes for exclusion criteria).