Effect of Olanzapine on Clinical and Polysomnography Profiles in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Mohammad Zia Ul Haq Katshu,Sukanto Sarkar,S Haque Nizamie

doi:10.1155/2018/3968015

Abstract

Acute and short-term administration of olanzapine has a favorable effect on sleep in schizophrenia patients. This study aimed to clarify the effect of olanzapine on polysomnographic profiles of schizophrenia patients during the acute phase of illness after controlling for previous drug exposure. Twenty-five drug-naïve or drug-free schizophrenia patients were assessed at baseline and after six weeks of olanzapine treatment on Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and Udvalg for Kliniske Undersogelser (UKU) side-effect rating scale and a whole-night polysomnography; fifteen patients completed the study. There was a significant reduction in all psychopathological variables with maximum reduction in PANSS total, BPRS total, and PANSS positive scores. A significant increase in total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), nonrapid eye movement (NREM) stage 1 duration, stage 3 duration, stage 4 duration, and stage 4 percentage of TST, number of rapid eye movement (REM) periods, REM duration, and REM percentage of TST was observed. REM latency at baseline inversely predicted the reduction in BPRS total and PANSS total and positive scores. In summary, short-term treatment with olanzapine produced significant improvement in clinical and polysomnography profiles of patients with schizophrenia with shorter REM latency predicting a good clinical response.

Highlights

Sleep remains disturbed in around 30–80% patients with schizophrenia [1]
Less severe symptoms may result in longer sleep onset latency, reduced total sleep time (TST), and sleep fragmented by bouts of awakening [2, 3]
Our study evaluated the effect of short-term treatment of olanzapine in schizophrenia patients with predominantly positive symptoms

Summary

Introduction

Sleep remains disturbed in around 30–80% patients with schizophrenia [1]. The degree of impairment in sleep may be a reflection of the severity of symptoms. Prolonged periods of total sleeplessness may be seen during psychotic agitation. Less severe symptoms may result in longer sleep onset latency, reduced total sleep time (TST), and sleep fragmented by bouts of awakening [2, 3]. Besides the overall quantitative changes, the architecture of sleep changes significantly. A significant decrement in rapid eye movement (REM) latency, REM duration, REM percentage of TST, nonrapid eye movement (NREM) stage 2, and slow wave sleep (SWS), in addition to a reduction in delta power, has been observed in most studies [2,3,4]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion