Intramuscular olanzapine at a dose of 2.5 to 10.0 mg per injection exhibits a dose-response relationship in the rapid treatment of acute agitation in patients with schizophrenia and demonstrates a favorable safety profile.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia remain a major clinical challenge. Mirtazapine is an antidepressant with antagonist properties at 5-HT2A, 5-HT3 and alpha 2 receptors as well as indirect 5-HT1a agonist effects. Many of these pharmacological actions have clinical or preclinical evidence of efficacy in schizophrenia. This study was a 6-week randomized placebo-controlled trial of mirtzepine or placebo add on to haloperidol 5 mg in the treatment of 30 patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia. The primary finding of the trial was a 42% reduction in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) negative symptom scores in the mirtazapine group compared to placebo at the end of 6 weeks (mirtazapine 13.9, SD 1.56; placebo 23.9, SD 1.56; P = 0.000, F = 20.31, d.f. = 1). The PANNS total scores, Clinical Global Impression severity and improvement scales in addition showed superiority of mirtazapine over placebo. There was no difference between the groups on the Hamilton depression scale at endpoint, suggesting that the improvement in negative symptoms was not an artifact of mood improvement. These results suggest a potential role for mirtazapine in the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

Sequential IM and oral ziprasidone offers important efficacy and tolerability advantages over haloperidol in acute schizophrenia.

No abstract

The relationships between [³H]imipramine binding to blood platelets and manifestation of aggressive behavior was studied in three different groups of subjects. Arrested offenders displayed high imipramine binding compared to controls, with violent offenders exceeding their nonviolent counterparts. Hostile schizophrenic patients showed imipramine binding higher than nonhostile matched patients. In normal volunteers, on the other hand, no correlation between imipramine binding and scores of aggression was found. The results support the notion about the involvement of a neuronal serotonergic system in the regulation of aggressive behavior. The contribution of this biological factor is detectable in pathological manifestation of aggression but not in normal behavior.