Long-term treatment with aripiprazole and its effects on negative and affective symptoms of schizophrenia

The novel antipsychotic agent aripiprazole acts via a dopamine-serotonin system stabilizer mechanism and has been found to act on both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. In the present study the effects of a long-term treatment over 52 weeks were investigated regarding negative and affective symptomatology. In a double-blind multicenter study changes in the PANSS negative subscale in schizophrenic patients with acute symptoms under aripiprazole 30mg/d (n=861) and under haloperidol 10mg/d (n=433) were investigated. Depression and anxiety were investigated according to a PANSS cluster. The reduction of negative symptoms was significantly larger in the aripiprazole group compared to haloperidol. Also the improvement of depression and anxiety was significantly increased in the aripiprazole group especially in patients with a severe depressive symptomatology. In conclusion aripiprazole shows a significantly better effect on negative and affective symptoms in patients with schizophrenia compared to haloperidol.