an efficacy and safety study of long-acting risperidone in participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders who are receiving psychiatric home care treatment

Conditions: Schizophrenia; Schizoaffective Disorders

Summary: the purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of long-acting risperidone microspheres (small uniformly-sized spherical particles, of micrometer dimensions, frequently labeled with radioisotopes or various reagents acting as tags or markers) in participants with schizophrenia (psychiatric disorder with symptoms of emotional instability, detachment from reality, often with delusions and hallucinations, and withdrawal into the self) and schizoaffective disorders (a mixed psychiatric disorder relating to a complex psychotic state that has features of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder such as bipolar disorder), who are receiving psychiatric home-care treatment .

this is an open-label (all people know the identity of the intervention), multi-centric (conducted in more than one center), non-randomized and single-arm study of long- acting risperidone microspheres in participants with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. the duration of this study will be 6 months and will include following parts: screening (that is, 28 days before study commences on day 1), run-in period (that is, week 1 to 3) and treatment period (that is, week 1 to 24). participants will receive previous medication for the first three weeks during run-in period and previous medications will be tapered off during the third week. participants will receive long-acting risperidone microspheres starting at a dose of 25 milligram (mg) every two weeks by intramuscular injection (injection of a substance into a muscle). efficacy of the participants will be primarily evaluated through positive and negative syndrome scale.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * meet the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder according to diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition (dsm-iv) * participant has been given an adequate dose of an appropriate antipsychotic for an adequate period of time prior to enrollment, but previous treatment is considered unsatisfactory due to one or more of the following reasons: lack of efficacy, lack of tolerability or safety, lack of compliance and/or other reasons to switch to another antipsychotic medication * female participants must be postmenopausal, surgically sterile, or practicing an effective method of birth control before entry and throughout the study; have a negative urine betahuman chorionic gonadotropin (hcg) pregnancy test at screening; and a negative urine pregnancy test on screening visit * participants or their legally acceptable representatives must have signed an informed consent document exclusion criteria: * participants with a primary, active dsm-iv diagnosis other than schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder * participants with relevant history or current presence of any significant and/or unstable cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological (including seizures or significant cerebrovascular), renal, hepatic, hematologic, endocrine, immunologic or other systemic disease * participants that are previously on concomitant use of risperdal consta * history or current symptoms of tardive dyskinesia * history of neuroleptic malignant syndrome (nms)

Keywords: schizophrenia schizoaffective disorders risperidone risperdal consta