Background: The combination of anticonvulsant mood stabilizers with antipsychotic drugs may lead to clinically relevant drug-drug interactions. The objective of the study was to identify pharmacokinetic interactions of different mood stabilizers on the metabolism of risperidone (RIS) under natural conditions.Methods: A large therapeutic drug monitoring database containing plasma concentrations of RIS and its metabolite 9-hydroxy-RIS (9-OH-RIS) of 1,584 adult patients was analyzed. Four groups (n = 1,072) were compared: a control group without a potentially cytochrome interacting comedication (R 0 , n = 852), a group comedicated with valproate (VPA) (R VPA , n = 153), a group comedicated with lamotrigine (LMT) (R LMT , n = 46), and a group under concomitant medication with carbamazepine (CBZ) (R CBZ , n = 21). Dose-adjusted plasma concentrations (C/D ratio) for RIS, 9-OH-RIS and active moiety (AM) (RIS + 9-OH-RIS), as well as metabolic ratios (RIS/9-OH-RIS) were computed.Results: Groups did not differ with regard to the daily dosage (P = 0.46).Differences were detected for the distributions of the C/D ratios for RIS, 9-OH-RIS and AM (P = 0.003, P < 0.001 and P < 0.001, respectively). Differences remained significant after conducting a Bonferroni correction (P = 0.0125). Pairwise comparisons of the concomitant medication groups with the control group revealed significant differences; RIS C/D ratios were significantly higher in the VPA and the LMT group than in the control group (P = 0.013; P = 0.021). However, these differences did not remain significant after Bonferroni correction. In contrast, CBZ-treated patients showed lower dose-adjusted plasma concentrations of 9-OH-RIS (P < 0.001) as well as the AM (P < 0.001) than the control group; this difference survived the Bonferroni correction.
Conclusions:The data give evidence for pharmacokinetic interactions between RIS and different anticonvulsant mood stabilizers. Carbamazepine decreased serum concentrations of 9-OH-RIS and the AM when compared with the control group. In case of VPA and LMT, findings were less significant; hints for a weak RIS metabolism inhibition by LMT of unclear clinical significance were found.Key Words: therapeutic drug monitoring, risperidone, carbamazepine, valproic acid, lamotrigine cytochrome P450, interaction, pharmacokinetics (J Clin Psychopharmacol 2016;36: 00-00) G uidelines worldwide recommend the coadministration of second-generation antipsychotics as augmentative therapy to mood stabilizers or vice versa in the treatment of bipolar disorders, especially for the treatment of manic episodes.1-3 Acceptance of this strategy which promises better efficacy 4 despite a higher potential of adverse events 5,6 is reflected in increasing prescription trends. 7 Many pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions (DDIs) have been identified by therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) as TDM databases enable evaluation of pharmacokinetic DDIs in a representative population to get an insight into the safety and tolerability of combined psychopharmacological ...