Survey of reasons to switch to sertindole in the treatment of schizophrenia

Abstract

Background:Sertindole is indicated for patients intolerant to at least one other antipsychotic agent.Methods:The following items were scored as reasons for switching to sertindole: lack of efficacy, side effects, poor quality of life, cognitive impairment, poor compliance and lack of insight from previous treatments. Kendall Tau b correlations were used to compare score rankings.Results:The majority of investigators ranked either lack of efficacy or side effects the most important reason for switching to sertindole. There was a negative correlation between rankings of these two reasons at European sites -0.39 (p<0.001), -0.32 (p<0.01), respectively.More investigators in Asia (38%) considered poor quality of life as an important reason for switching treatment than in Europe (21-27%). 14-20% of investigators considered cognitive impairment as a most important reason.<16% of investigators in all regions considered poor compliance and lack of insight as a most important reason.In Asia, there was a significant negative correlation (–0.25, p<0.05) between rankings of poor compliance and side effects, where side effects were generally ranked as being more important than poor compliance. Similarly, a significant negative correlation (–0.28, p<0.01) between rankings of cognitive impairment and lack of insight was seen in E Europe.Discussion & ConclusionsLack of efficiency and side effects from previous treatments were the primary reasons for switching to sertindole. Asian investigators probably considered side effects to be the cause of poor compliance whereas E. Europeans probably considered cognitive impairment to be the true cause of lack of insight.