Worsening Schizoaffective Disorder With Aripiprazole

Aripiprazole and suicidality

“…The observed time sequence, with the repetition 4 weeks later, lead us to consider that this effect might possibly be linked to the aripiprazole treatment, which could have increased the risk of suicide in this patient. Caution is recommended when using aripiprazole in combination with other antipsychotic agents (Reeves and Mack, 2004) or antidepressants, and increased caution is recommended with regard to suicide risk. Serious adverse events such as suicide attempts are reported in clinical trials.…”

“…Cases of psychotic symptoms worsening after treatment with aripiprazole have been described (Ramaswamy et al, 2004;Reeves and Mack, 2004). We report the case of a patient who, although her psychotic symptoms did not worsen, attempted suicide after switching from risperidone to aripiprazole.…”

Frequency and correlates of antipsychotic polypharmacy among patients with schizophrenia in Denmark: A nation-wide pharmacoepidemiological study

“…A meta-analysis by Taylor et al found only modest effects of combining another antipsychotic drug with clozapine (Taylor et al, 2012). In addition, worsening of psychosis has also been reported during APP (Nielsen et al, 2012a;Reeves and Mack, 2004).…”

HTR2A A-1438G/T102C polymorphisms predict negative symptoms performance upon aripiprazole treatment in schizophrenic patients

“…It acts as a partial agonist at dopamine D2 and D3 and serotonin 1A receptors (DRD2, DRD3, and HTR1A) and as an antagonist at serotonin 2A receptors (HTR2A; Burstein et al 2005;Uzun et al 2005). Although aripiprazole has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (Kasper et al 2003;Potkin et al 2003), the partial agonist property may worsen psychotic or mood symptoms in some patients (Raja 2007;Reeves and Mack 2004). The inter-individual variation in the clinical response prompts our pharmacogenetic research of aripiprazole.…”