Initiating Aripiprazole Similar to Other Antipsychotics When It Comes to Risk of Treatment Failure, Study Suggests

Patients who begin taking the antipsychotic aripiprazole after being treated with other antipsychotics do not appear to be at greater risk of hospitalization, self-harm, or suicide than those initiating other antipsychotics after previous antipsychotic exposure, according to astudy reported today inJAMA Psychiatry.Aripiprazole is an effective antipsychotic medication that is often used because it has fewer side effects compared with other antipsychotic medications, explained Fran çois Montastruc, M.D., Ph.D., of the Jewish General Hospital in Quebec and colleagues. Recently, however, there have been reports that in patients already exposed to antipsychotic medication, aripiprazole can result in worsening of symptoms and treatment failure.“We found no evidence of an increased rate of psychiatric treatment failure associated with initiating aripiprazole use compared with initiating use of other antipsychotic drugs in patients previously exposed to antipsychotic medications,” Montastruc and colleagues wrote.They analyzed data from the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) on 1,643 patients who were starting aripiprazole (either as a switch from or add-on to a previous antipsychotic medication) and another 1,643 patients who were starting on other oral antipsychotic medications under similar circumstances. The CPRD is one of the world ’s largest computerized databases of anonymous primary care medical records, containing the data of more than 15 million...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: aripiprazole hospitalization JAMA Psychiatry psychiatric treatment failure self-harm suicide Source Type: research