QUALITY-OF-LIFE AND RESPONSE OF NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA TOHALOPERIDOL AND THE ATYPICAL ANTIPSYCHOTIC REMOXIPRIDE

In a large, multicenter, double-blind study of the effect of haloperid ol and the atypical antipsychotic remoxipride on improvement of negati ve symptoms in schizophrenia, quality of life was also assessed using a modified version of the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), Compared with previous studies, this study had a longer duration (28 weeks), and th e dose of the comparator, haloperidol, was much lower, At the end of t he study, compared with the baseline, both treatment groups reported c omparable improvement in negative symptoms as defined by the protocol( at least 20% improvement), Similarly, both groups showed comparable ch anges on global and multidimensional self-assessments of quality of li fe, All the subfactors of the modified version of the SIP were similar in both groups, except for the subfactor that relates to alertness be havior, which possibly reflects remoxipride's lack of any sedating pro perties compared with haloperidol, This study presents an approach for inclusion of quality of life as an outcome measure in the design of c linical trials of new antipsychotic medications.