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. 2015 Jun;5(3):166-71.
doi: 10.1177/2045125315579870.

Quetiapine versus aripiprazole in the management of schizophrenia

Saeed Shoja Shafti  1 , Hamid Kaviani  2
Affiliations

Quetiapine versus aripiprazole in the management of schizophrenia

Saeed Shoja Shafti et al. Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 2015 Jun.

Abstract

Objectives: Current evidence supports the use of various second-generation antipsychotics for pharmacotherapy of schizophrenia. While in a systematic review, generally no difference in efficacy was found between atypical antipsychotics, other studies have found quetiapine less effective than aripiprazole. This article reviews the efficacy and tolerability of aripiprazole versus quetiapine in the context of recommended management strategies for schizophrenia.

Method: Fifty female inpatients, meeting the diagnosis of schizophrenia, were randomly entered into two groups (n = 25 in each group) to participate in a 12-week, double-blind study for random assignment to quetiapine or aripiprazole. The primary outcome measures were Scale for Assessment of Positive Symptoms and Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms. The schedule for Assessment of Insight (SAI), Clinical Global Impressions Severity Scale (CGI-S) and the Simpson Angus Scale (SAS) were also used as secondary measures.

Results: Both quetiapine and aripiprazole showed significant effectiveness in the improvement of positive symptoms. The effectiveness for negative symptoms was also noteworthy with both drugs, although not to a significant level during this study. In addition, significant improvement was found on assessment with CGI-S and SAI for quetiapine and aripiprazole. SAS did not show any important increment in extrapyramidal side effects at the end of the examination.

Conclusion: According to the findings, quetiapine and aripiprazole had similar effectiveness and tolerability with respect to management of schizophrenia.

Keywords: aripiprazole; quetiapine; schizophrenia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Changes in Scale for Assessment of Positive Symptoms between baseline (week 0) and week 12.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Changes in Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms between baseline (week 0) and week 12.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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