Brexpiprazole Augmentation in Treatment Resistant OCD: Safety and Efficacy in an Italian Sample

Abstract

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common and debilitating psychiatric disorder with an approximate incidence of 2.5% in the general population. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) are considered the first line of pharmacological treatment but up to 50% of patients fail to achieve clinical remission or response. Atypical antipsychotics are one of the most common augmentation strategies in OCD treatment resistant patients. Brexpiprazole, a novel atypical antipsychotic with dopamine partial agonism action, has never been studied in addition to SRIs treatment in OCD resistant patients. This study retrospectively investigated the safety and efficacy of a 12 week brexpiprazole augmentation trial in 34 OCD resistant patients. SRI treatment resistance was defined as failing to improve the YBOCS total score by more than 25% from the beginning of the SRI trial. Brexpiprazole augmentation response was defined as at least a 25% improvement in the YBOCS total score. At the end of the study, 17 patients (50.0%) met the response criteria of ≥25% improvement in YBOCS total score vs. baseline. No safety issues were raised throughout the observation period. A total of 19 patients (55.9%) reported adverse experiences, generally mild and not requiring medical intervention. This is the first study to examine the safety and efficacy of brexpiprazole augmentation in resistant OCD patients. Our findings show that brexpiprazole may be a promising and well-tolerated augmentation strategy for SRI-resistant OCD patients. However, further research in larger populations is needed to confirm these results and investigate the long-term safety and tolerability of brexpiprazole in OCD patients.

Keywords: brexpiprazole – augmentation - treatment-resistant OCD – safety – SRIs.