engleski

Effectiveness of quetiapine treatment in patients with schizophrenia

Background and Purpose: The efficacy of quetiapine in the treatment of acute schizophrenia was demonstrated in controlled trials in switch quetiapine was shown to be both superior to placebo and associated with clinically meaningful improvement. Quetiapine was shown to improve symptoms in patients with schizophrenia who had partially responded to conventional antipsychotics. The purpose of this paper was to present results of the investigation of the effectiveness of treatment with quetiapine in pa¬tients with schizophrenia, after twelve wee\s of continuous therapy with quetiapine. Materials and Methods: 60 patients were switched to quetiapine during hospitalization due to inadequate response to or intolerance of their previous antipsychotic. The Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were used in order to assess the ef¬fectiveness of quetiapine treatment. The first assessment was made prior to initiation of quetiapine treatment. The second assessment tvas made after six weeks, and the third assessment was made after twelve weeks of continu¬ous therapy with quetiapine. Statistical significance was set to p<0.05. Results: After twelve weeks of continuous therapy with quetiapine, PANSS total score significantly decreased in the group of patients who were switched to quetiapine because of inadequate response to previous anti- psychotic therapy. In the same period, the mean CGI severity score for all patients fell from 3.8 (»moderately ill«) to 2.9 (»mildly ill«). Conclusion: Switching to quetiapine was clinically beneficial for patients with both moderate response to and intolerance of their previous antipsychotic therapy.

effectiveness; pharmacotherapy; antipsychotic; quetiapine; patients

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