Conditions: Schizophrenia
Keywords: Schizoaffective Disorder, Depressed Type Schizophreniform Disorder First-episode Schizophrenia Injectable Risperidone
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 126
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
This study will determine the effectiveness of oral risperidone versus long-acting injectable risperidone in treating people with first-episode schizophrenia.

Detailed description:
Schizophrenia is a severely disabling brain disorder. People with schizophrenia often experience hallucinations, delusions, thought disorders, and movement disorders. Proper treatment of first-episode schizophrenia may increase the chances of controlling disease progression on a long-term basis. People experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia are more responsive to treatment than those with chronic schizophrenia, but are also more susceptible to adverse treatment side effects. Atypical antipsychotic medications have been shown to produce fewer adverse side effects than older "typical" antipsychotics. Risperidone is a type of atypical antipsychotic medication that is used to control the symptoms of schizophrenia. This study will determine the effectiveness of oral risperidone versus long-acting injectable risperidone in treating people with first-episode schizophrenia.

Participants in this open label study will be randomly assigned to receive either orally administered risperidone or long-acting risperidone administered via injection. Participants assigned to oral risperidone will receive medication in doses that are determined to be optimal by the study psychiatrist. Participants assigned to long-acting risperidone will receive an injection of risperidone once every 2 weeks. Dosages will begin at 25 mg and will be adjusted as necessary to achieve the optimal dosage. Following 2 to 3 months to achieve outpatient risperidone dosage stabilization, the randomized medication conditions will begin and participants will be monitored for 1 year. Study visits will occur once weekly throughout the study. They will include group therapy meetings focused on everyday living skills; family education about schizophrenia; assessments of medication response; and individual meetings with a case manager for counseling and evaluations of schizophrenia symptoms.

Arms:
arm 1: Participants who are randomly assigned to this arm will be administered the long-acting injectible form of risperidone (Risperdal Consta) every two weeks, plus group skills training and case management, for 12 months. arm 2: Participants who are randomly assigned to this arm will be treated with the oral version of risperidone (Risperdal) daily, plus group skills training and case management, for 12 months.

Interventions: intervention 1: Oral Risperidone intervention 2: Risperidone in Long-Acting Injectable Form (Consta)
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Patients will be treated with oral risperidone daily, with the dosage determined by treating psychiatrist. intervention 2: Participants will take a 25 mg dosage of injectable risperidone (Risperidone in Long-Acting Injectable Form (Consta)) once every 2 weeks. Dosage will be adjusted if needed.

Protocol document: