SERTINDOLE IN THE TREATMENT OF PSYCHOSIS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - EFFICACY AND SAFETY

Evidence from clinical trials supports the claim that sertindole is a potent antipsychotic drug at a dose of 12-24 mg/day. Its action agains t positive symptoms is as potent as that of the traditional antipsycho tic haloperidol. Its action against negative symptoms is significantly different from that of placebo and quantitatively larger than that of haloperidol. Its most distinctive characteristic is a reduction in mo tor side effects over a whole range of comparable drug and comparator doses. More work is needed to determine whether sertindole's actions a gainst negative symptoms influence the primary or the secondary negati ve system. There are insufficient data at present to compare sertindol e with the highly efficacious drug clozapine or the other new antipsyc hotic olanzapine.