Two trials examined olanzapine and found no difference in the primary outcome ( response to treatment ) and most other efficacy-related outcomes but it was associated with more weight gain than monotherapy with antidepressants .
There were also some beneficial effects of quetiapine in terms of anxiety or depressive symptoms .
BACKGROUND Obsessive compulsive disorder ( OCD ) is a psychiatric disorder which has been shown to affect 2 to 3.5 % of people during their lifetimes .
Inadequate response occurs in 40 % to 60 % of people that are prescribed first line pharmaceutical treatments ( selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs ) ) .
To date not much is known about the efficacy and adverse effects of second-generation antipsychotic drugs ( SGAs ) in people suffering from OCD .
OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effects of SGAs ( monotherapy or add on ) compared with placebo or other forms of pharmaceutical treatment for people with OCD .
Quetiapine augmentation of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in obsessive-compulsive disorder
The augmentation of serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SRIs ) with atypical antipsychotics for the management of  treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder ( OCD ) is gaining increasing acceptance . Quetiapine is a novel antipsychotic which is well tolerated , and which may therefore be particularly useful in this context . Charts of all patients treated in our OCD clinic with the combination of an SRI and quetiapine  were review ed . Demographic details and clinical symptoms on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale and the Clinical Global Impressions Scale ( CGI ) were tabulated before and after augmentation . Eight OCD patients who had proven resistance to treatment with SRIs  had received quetiapine augmentation . Four of these eight patients were responders ( CGI of 1 or 2 ) within 4 weeks . In the treatment-responders , the medication was well tolerated . Although limited by the retrospective design and lack of controls , these data are consistent with the growing literature suggesting that approximately one-half of OCD patients resistant to treatment with SRIs  may respond to augmentation with an atypical antipsychotic . Quetiapine , a relatively well tolerated agent , deserves further controlled study in this context
Two trials examined olanzapine and found no difference in the primary outcome ( response to treatment ) and most other efficacy-related outcomes but it was associated with more weight gain than monotherapy with antidepressants .
There were also some beneficial effects of quetiapine in terms of anxiety or depressive symptoms .
BACKGROUND Obsessive compulsive disorder ( OCD ) is a psychiatric disorder which has been shown to affect 2 to 3.5 % of people during their lifetimes .
Inadequate response occurs in 40 % to 60 % of people that are prescribed first line pharmaceutical treatments ( selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs ) ) .
To date not much is known about the efficacy and adverse effects of second-generation antipsychotic drugs ( SGAs ) in people suffering from OCD .
OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effects of SGAs ( monotherapy or add on ) compared with placebo or other forms of pharmaceutical treatment for people with OCD .