Long-term Efficacy and Safety of Risperidone in Patients with Schizophrenia / 대한정신약물학회지

ABSTRACT

Most informations on the efficacy and safety of new antipsychotic durgs are based on short-term clinical trials. Short-term studies are usually conducted as well-controlled, randomized, comparative studies. However, they do not provide any informations about delayed efficacy or late-onset adverse events such as tardive dyskinesia, functional recovery, relapse or recur rates and maintenance treatment. This is why there is growing interest in long-term clinical studies of antipsychotic drugs. The number of well designed long-term studies, however, are limited compared to that of short-term studies because of practical reasons as well as some methodological issues. In this article, the authors reviewed original research papers on the long-term treatment outcomes of risperidone while discussing the methodological considerations.