Gedeon Richter: an effective treatment for female schizophrenia patients

BUDAPEST, Hungary, Oct. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Between the 7-10^th of October 2023, during the 36^th Annual Meeting of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), new analyses of cariprazine studies were presented by Gedeon Richter Plc. Cariprazine was found to be effective in women with schizophrenia in a real-life setting with around 70% of the physicians being satisfied with the results. In another poster presentation, it was also shown that cariprazine is statistically significantly better than risperidone in addressing negative symptoms of schizophrenia, but even regarding the global illness severity – that goes beyond negative symptoms – the drug provided better results.

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder characterized by positive, negative, cognitive, and mood symptoms, affecting about 1% of the population. Although antipsychotics are effective in the treatment of positive symptoms, the management of negative, cognitive, and affective symptoms often remains challenging.

Cariprazine is a 3^rd generation antipsychotic medication with a unique receptor profile and proven efficacy in persistent negative symptoms. Treatment with risperidone is still one of the most used standards when it comes to schizophrenia. Nonetheless according to the Gedeon Richter scientific poster, based on a post-hoc analysis of a randomized, 26-week double blind clinical trial: clinicians observed a significant reduction in global illness severity – that goes beyond negative symptoms – and measured functional improvement that appears to start early and is significantly greater than with risperidone.

In the second poster, the effectiveness of cariprazine in women in a real-world setting was presented. Based on an open label, flexible dose, 16 week (5 visit), observational study of cariprazine involving 116 outpatients in Latvia (47 of them were women), cariprazine was found to be effective in women with schizophrenia in a real-life setting. Almost 28% of the doctors were very satisfied, 42.6% were satisfied and only 6.4% of them were dissatisfied with cariprazine's effectiveness. The primary outcome measure was a list of clinical questions on schizophrenia symptoms (positive symptoms: hallucinations, delusions; negative symptoms: anhedonia, blunted effect, avolition/apathy, alogia, asociality) rated on a 7 point scale, the so-called Short Assessment of Negative Domains (SAND).There was a significant change from baseline in women to week 16 in the SAND scores: negative symptoms decreased by 6.2, positive symptoms decreased with 1.0, which is a remarkable, combined 7.2 drop.

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