Amisulpride for the treatment of very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis.
BACKGROUND
Although schizophrenia affects all age groups, late or very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis has not been well studied and various treatment issues remain unresolved. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of amisulpride monotherapy in a diagnostically homogeneous group of elderly patients without cognitive impairment suffering from very-late-onset schizophrenia.


METHODS
Twenty-six patients of mean age 76.2 +/- 5.8 years, fulfilling both the recent consensus criteria for very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis and the DSM-IV-TR criteria for schizophrenia, were assessed by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Clinical Global Impression Scale and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale at baseline and five weeks following amisulpride (50-200 mg/day) administration; also, the presence of abnormal movements was evaluated with the Simpson-Angus Scale, the Barnes Akathisia Scale, and the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale.


RESULTS
A highly significant (p < 0.001) improvement on all measures of psychotic symptomatology was observed in all patients. Amisulpride was very well tolerated by the patients and no clinically significant adverse effects were observed. Scores on all abnormal movement scales did not differ significantly prior to and after amisulpride treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Preliminary results indicate that amisulpride appears to be an efficacious and safe atypical antipsychotic for the treatment of very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis.
Psarros
Constantin
C
Athens University Medical School, 1st Psychiatry Department, Eginition Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Theleritis
Christos G
CG
Paparrigopoulos
Thomas J
TJ
Politis
Antonios M
AM
Papadimitriou
George N
GN
D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000077582:Amisulpride; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004409:Dyskinesia, Drug-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013469:Sulpiride / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D013469:Sulpiride; D000077582:Amisulpride