Efficacy and Metabolic Influence on Blood-Glucose and Serum Lipid of Ziprasidone in the Treatment of Elderly Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia.

Background: As the age of the population in China rises, the occurrence of first-episode of schizophrenia in elderly persons is also gradually increasing. However, studies examining selection of therapeutic drugs for this population are relatively few.

Objective: To examine the therapeutic efficacy and metabolic influence on blood-glucose and serum lipid of ziprasidone in the treatment of elderly patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

Methods: Using randomized grouping, 38 elderly patients with first-episode schizophrenia were randomly divided into the ziprasidone treatment group (i.e. the study group) and the olanzapine treatment group (i.e. the control group), with 19 cases in either group respectively. The positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS) was used to evaluate the efficacy, and adverse drug reaction scale (TESS) was used to evaluate adverse drug reactions, at the points prior to the treatment, at the end of 4th, 8th, and 12th weeks of treatment, respectively. Fasting blood glucose (FBG), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low density lipoprotein (LDL-c) were also measured.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in PANSS score at the end of week 4, week 8 and week 12. The curative effect on the two groups was similar. The results of repeated measure ANOVA showed that there were significant differences in FBG (F_time×group=7.539, p=0.001), TC(F_time×group=32.194, p<0.001), TG(F_time×group=488.312, p<0.001), and LDL-c (F_time×group=9.380, p<0.001)between the study group and the control group across the different time points.

Conclusion: Ziprasidone in the treatment of first episode schizophrenia in elderly patients has efficacy and less effect on blood-glucose and serum lipid metabolism.