Loxapine for schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
Loxapine is a drug with D2/D3 receptor antagonist activity and a higher affinity for D3 than D2. Some authors have suggested that loxapine is more effective than typical antipsychotics in reducing the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, that extrapyramidal side-effects are not usually seen at clinically effective antipsychotic doses and that it should therefore be classed as atypical.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effects of loxapine compared with placebo, typical and other atypical antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia and related psychoses.


METHODS
Electronic searches of Biological Abstracts (1980-1999), The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 1999), The Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's Register (January 1999), EMBASE (1980-1999), MEDLINE (1966-1999), LILACS (1982-1996), PSYNDEX (1977-1995) and PsycLIT (1974-1999) were undertaken. In addition, pharmaceutical databases on the Dialog Corporation Datastar and Dialog services were searched. References of all identified studies were searched for further trials. Pharmaceutical companies and authors of trials were contacted.


METHODS
All randomised controlled clinical trials relevant to the care of schizophrenia that compared loxapine to other treatments.


METHODS
Citations and, where possible, abstracts were independently inspected by reviewers, papers ordered, re-inspected and quality assessed. Data were independently extracted but excluded if loss to follow up was greater than 50%. For homogeneous dichotomous data the risk ratio (RR), 95% confidence interval (CI) and, where appropriate, the number needed to treat (NNT) were calculated on an intention-to-treat basis. For continuous data, weighted mean differences were calculated (WMD). All data were inspected for heterogeneity.


RESULTS
Compared to placebo, loxapine is antipsychotic (Global effect - not improved at 6 weeks, n=66, RR 0.6 CI 0.4-0.9 NNT 4 CI 2-62) with similar adverse effect profile to typical drugs. Is as effective as typical drugs in the short term (4-12 weeks) (Global effect - not improved, n=411, RR 0.89 CI 0.7-1.2). Very limited heterogeneous data suggest that, given intramuscularly (IM), loxapine may be at least as sedating as IM haloperidol and thiothixene.


CONCLUSIONS
Loxapine is antipsychotic but its effects are under researched. It is not clearly different from typical drugs in either its positive or adverse effects.
Fenton
M
M
Leeds Social Service, Leeds Crisis Centre, 3 Spring Rd, Headingley, Leeds, West Yorks, UK, LS6 1AD. brendanm@eboli.demon.co.uk
Murphy
B
B
Wood
J
J
Bagnall
A
A
Chue
P
P
Leitner
M
M
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018492:Dopamine Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008152:Loxapine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D018492:Dopamine Antagonists; D008152:Loxapine