Differences in Schizophrenia With One-month and 3-month Paliperidone Palmitate Treatment
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2017-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe psychiatric disorder, these patients suffer from
positive symptoms, negative symptoms and cognitive deficits, of which working memory problems
are considered a central cognitive impairment. Atypical antipsychotics are believed to have a
superior effect in reducing both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, coupled
with a low risk of extrapyramidal symptoms. Particularly, 2nd-generation antipsychotic
medications are commonly used in treatment of schizophrenia. An antipsychotic drug,
Paliperidone palmitate (PDP), is administered to patients with schizophrenia as injections at
one-month (PP1M) or three-month (PP3M) intervals. This study was compare the effects of
treatment, social function, and side effects between PP1M and PP3M in patients with
schizophrenia. Moreover, the changes of cognitive and lipid profile between two PDP were also
explored. Firstly, participants were received the one month long-acting injection (PP1M)
three months. Then, the stable participants were shifted to the three month long-acting
injection (PP3M). Concomitant medications were allowed to prescribe except other
antipsychotics. Outcome measurements were 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), 45-itme
quality of life for mental disorder (QOLMD), Short-version of the Udvalg for Kliniske
Undersogelser (short-version UKU), and Wisconsin Card Sorting test (WCST). These measurements
were performed every three-month except WCST which was performed every six-month. The
different effects of PP1M and PP3M will be expected to find out in this study.