Amisulpride augmentation of clozapine: an open non‐randomized study in patients with schizophrenia partially responsive to clozapine

Abstract

Co-administration of amisulpride, in a group of patients partially or non-responsive to clozapine, may lead to a substantial improvement in positive and negative symptoms, without worsening the side effect burden.

The effect of lamotrigine augmentation of clozapine in a sample of treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients: A double-blind, placebo-controlled study

“…Patients scoring 25 or more on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (Overall and Gorham, 1962) at the baseline evaluation were classified as partial-responders or non-responders to clozapine (Munro et al, 2004). The patients' age, gender and duration of illness are shown in Table 1.…”

When Is Antipsychotic Polypharmacy Supported by Research Evidence? Implications for QI

“…51 We identified nine noncontrolled observational trials comparing antipsychotic polypharmacy to monotherapy in samples with established treatment resistance to trials of a single antipsychotic (Table 1). [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61] All studies were of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Eight of the trials reported significant improvement in reduced symptoms with the addition of a second antipsychotic.…”

“…53,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61] Of the eight studies that examined side effects, four reported no change with the addition of a concurrent antipsychotic. 53,54,59,60 Three studies reported increased side effects with the addition of another antipsychotic, [56][57][58] whereas one study reported a decrease in sedation. 56 The observational studies also had small sample sizes (7-28 patients), and most of them were longer than the RCTs (1-9 months).…”

“…Of the nine trials, eight involved clozapine augmentation. [53][54][55][56][58][59][60][61] Clozapine was augmented with risperidone in three studies; 54,56,59 amisulpride (a second-generation drug not available in the United States) in two trials; 53,58 and pimozide 55 , aripiprazole, 60 and ziprasidone 61 each in one trial. The ninth trial reported on the nonspecific use of two SGAs in combination.…”

Clozapine augmentation with amisulpride

“…3 However, aripiprazole aside, these add-on therapies were associated with lower tolerability. Another option is augmentation with amisulpride, 5,6 which has been reported to be effective and well tolerated.…”