A study of the therapeutic spectrum of a fixed-dose of zotepine and its relationship with serum concentrations of the drug

✍ Scribed by Tsuyoshi Kondo; Koichi Otani; Masayuki Ishida; Kazuo Mihara; Osamu Tanaka; Sunao Kaneko; Yutaka Fukushima

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 474 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/hup.470080207

✦ Synopsis

The therapeutic spectrum of zotepine, an antipsychotic drug, and its relationship with serum concentrations of the drug were investigated by a fixed-dose study (100mg/day in the first week, and 200mg/day for the next 3 weeks) in 20 schizophrenic in-patients. The mean percentages of symptom reduction in total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and three subgroups were 63.4 per cent for total, 64-4 per cent for positive symptoms, 41.8 per cent for negative symptoms and 74.2 per cent for anxiety-depression respectively. Total, positive and negative symptoms were significantly reduced after 2 weeks (p < 0-OI), while a significant reduction in anxiety-depression symptoms was already found after 1 week (p < 0.01). There were significant differences in the values of percentage improvement in total and positive symptoms after 2 weeks (p < 0.05) and negative symptoms after 1 week (p < 0-05) between responders (more than 50 per cent reduction in total BPRS scores at the end of the study) and nonresponders.

In 18 patients (90 per cent), the clinical response at 2 weeks corresponded well to the final outcome. No definite relationship was found between serum zotepine concentrations and the clinical efficacy.