Dosing Cariprazine Within and Beyond Clinical Trials: Recommendations for the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Although the optimal dosing of an antipsychotic medication is known to be essential in the long-term management of schizophrenia, in case of novel drugs such as cariprazine, determining the right dosing strategy is not that simple. Without decades of experience with a particular compound, evidence regarding dosing and titration comes primarily from double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trials that are not necessarily mirroring the real-life experiences of doctors. Via summarizing data from both clinical data (n = 3275) and real-world evidence (observational study n = 116, case studies n = 29), this perspective paper aims to shed a light on the appropriate dosing strategies of cariprazine from treatment initiation through switching strategies to concomitant medications.

Keywords: antipsychotic; cariprazine; dosing; psychopharmacotherapy; schizophrenia.

Figure 1

Switching strategies with cariprazine. Graphic representation of data according to Németh et al. (7), Fagiolini et al. (45), Sullivan et al. (46), Stephen (47).