The Comparison of Olanzapine and Risperidone Treatment in Male Schizophrenic Patients using Positive and Negative Syndromes Scale (PANSS)

Abstract

Introduction: The most common method to compare olanzapine and risperidone is by calculating the score of positive and negative syndromes scale (PANSS). However, there were some conflicting results mentioned from previous studies.

Aim: This study aimed to compare the treatment of olanzapine and risperidone using PANSS, limited to only male patients receiving inpatient treatment to obtain more significant results.

Methods: The subjects of this study were male schizophrenic patients in the acute phase of treatment (N = 68) who were hospitalised at the Mental Hospital Prof. Dr M. Ildrem, Indonesia. These participants were divided into two groups and treated with different atypical antipsychotics (olanzapine, 20 mg/day [n = 34]; risperidone, 6 mg/day [n = 34]). The scores of PANSS from both groups were collected from pre-test and post-test after 6 -week treatment.

Results: The improvement of the schizophrenia symptoms measured by PANSS after 6 weeks showed significant differences in the scores of PANSS between the male patient groups treated with olanzapine and risperidone (p-value < 0.001).

Conclusion: The group of olanzapine shows a higher improvement of the scores of PANSS than that the group of risperidone.

Keywords: Acute phase of treatment; Male schizophrenic patients; Olanzapine; PANSS; Risperidone.

Figure 1

Mean change from baseline in weekly for positive scale, negative scale, general psychopathology scale, and a total score of PANSS of male schizophrenic patients treated with olanzapine or risperidone (p-value < 0.001)