Risperidone in the treatment of patients with Alzheimer's disease with negative symptoms

Introduction: Negative symptoms such as diminished initiative, drive, motiv ation, and emotional reactivity have been described in patients with Alzhei mer's disease (AD). The purpose of this study was to retrospectively analyz e the efficacy and tolerability of risperidone for the treatment of clinica lly significant positive and negative symptoms in AD. Methods: We reviewed the charts of 50 community-residing AD patients who had been treated in a s pecialized university-based dementia management clinic. Clinical data compa ring baseline and 12 weeks of treatment were obtained by reviewing a series of rating scales that were recorded as part of a comprehensive behavioral assessment. Results: Reviewed subjects had a mean age of 79.7 +/- 6 years a nd a mean of 12 +/- 3.6 years of school. Seventy percent of the subjects we re female and the majority was White. The mean dose of risperidone prescrib ed was 1.3 +/- 0.6 mg per day (range from 0.5 mg to 3.0 mg). After 12 weeks of treatment, the severity of positive and negative symptoms was significa ntly reduced. Importantly, improvement in negative symptoms with the use of risperidone appeared to be independent of a positive treatment effect on p ositive symptoms. Risperidone had insignificant effects on both cognitive s tatus and the emergence of extrapyramidal symptoms. Conclusion: This retros pective study demonstrates that risperidone appears to be efficacious in th e treatment of clinically significant positive and negative symptoms in pat ients with AD.