Pharmacotherapy Update: Risperidone in the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Abstract

The paper is a review of the clinical use of risperidone, an antipsychotic introduced in the treatment of schizophrenia in 1994. Randomized controlled trials, naturalistic studies and extensive clinical experience have definitively shown strong efficacy and effectiveness of risperidone in the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. On the basis of available evidence, no other antipsychotic drug has shown superior clinical effectiveness in the treatment of psychotic disorders, with the significant exception of clozapine. The wide use of risperidone in the last 15 years has confirmed a favorable safety index. Some features of risperidone render it uniquely useful in the management of psychotic disorders, including a very wide range of dosage, availability in liquid and long-term injectable forms. Finally, the drug is currently available in generic form, at lower cost. However, risperidone presents major limitations. A substantial number of patients with psychotic symptoms do not respond to risperidone, whatever its dose. Most of these patients will need clozapine. For some risperidone treated patients, extrapyramidal side effects remain a serious concern. Weight gain, metabolic syndrome, and hyperprolactinemia related side effects are frequent and may be severe, unacceptable, and even dangerous in some patients.