Efficacy and Tolerability of Olanzapine in Elderly Patients with Psychotic Disorders: A Prospective Study

Comparative effects of risperidone and olanzapine on cognition in elderly patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder

“…Improvement on tests of attention, executive function, memory, and verbal fluency after risperidone treatment has been demonstrated in studies of both elderly (Davidson et al, 2000) and younger adult schizophrenic populations (Green et al, 1997;Rossi et al, 1997;Purdon et al, 2000;Harvey et al, in press). Previous studies of olanzapine have demonstrated cognitive improvements in younger schizophrenic populations (Purdon et al, 2000;Cuesta et al, 2001) and improved MMSE scores in elderly psychotic patients (Madhusoodanan et al, 2000). Improvements in cognitive function have been demonstrated in younger patients with schizophrenia as early as 4 weeks with risperidone (Green et al, 1997) and 6 weeks with olanzapine (Purdon et al, 2000).…”

“…The atypical antipsychotics risperidone and olanzapine have been shown in open-label studies to reduce both positive and negative symptoms in elderly patients to a greater extent than do conventional antipsychotics and also to improve cognitive deficits (Davidson et al, 2000;Jeste et al, 1996;Madhusoodanan et al, 2000;Berman et al, 1996). Further, both of these medications have been shown in a recent double-blind study to enhance cognitive functioning in younger schizophrenic patients to a relatively equivalent extent (Harvey et al, in press).…”

The impact upon extra‐pyramidal side effects, clinical symptoms and quality of life of a switch from conventional to atypical antipsychotics (risperidone or olanzapine) in elderly patients with schizophrenia

“…However, these studies are imperfect for several reasons including: heterogeneous study population (Madhusoodanan et al, 1995;Joshi and Joshi, 1996;Davidson et al, 2000;Madhusoodanan et al, 2000), retrospective design (Kiraly et al, 1998;Madhusoodanan et al, 1999a;Solomon and Geiger, 2000) single arm (Madhusoodanan et al, 1995;Berman et al, 1996;Madhusoodanan et al, 1999b;Davidson et al, 2000;Madhusoodanan et al, 2000;Solomons and Geiger, 2000) small sample size (Madhusoodanan et al, 1995;Berman et al, 1996;Barak et al, 2001;Madhusoodanan et al, 2000) nonspecific or limited outcome measures (Kiraly et al, 1998) and short follow up period (Madhusoodanan et al, 1999b;Maguire et al, 2001;Jeste et al, 2001). Despite these limitations they have consistently indicated efficacy in improving core schizophrenic symptoms, reducing extra pyramidal side effects (EPSE) and being well tolerated.…”

Tardive dyskinesias in the elderly

“…Sajatovic et al (1998) showed a signi®cant decrease in AIMS scores in elderly patients with schizophrenia (mean age 70.6 years) treated with a mean dose of 8.4 mg of olanzapine. A signi®cant decrease in CGI scores of TD severity was also reported by Madhusoodanan et al (2000) in a prospective study on 11 hospitalized patients aged 60±85 years treated with olanzapine at a dose range of 5±20 mg. A signi®cant decrease in EPS and a substantial stabilization of TD has been reported after 12 months of treatment with risperidone in patients with a median age of 72 years (Davidson et al, 2000). Reports on quetiapine are somewhat less clear, as Tariot et al (2000) could not identify a clear effect of this drug on AIMS scores in elderly patients (mean age 76 years) treated for 52 weeks.…”