HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) web only references Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Barbui, C. Articles by Cipriani, A. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Barbui, C. Articles by Cipriani, A.

Cognitive improvements with antipsychotics: real or practice effect?

Terry Goldberg

Correspondence to: Terry Goldberg, PhD, Zucker Hillside Hospital, 7559 263rd Street, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, USA; tgoldberg@nshs.edu

QUESTION
Question:
Do the effects of olanzapine and risperidone on cognition in first-episode schizophrenia differ, and are the effects real or the result of repeating the tests?

Patients:
104 people with DSM-IV first episode schizophrenia (76 with schizophrenia, 10 with schizoaffective disorder, and 18 with schizophreniform disorder) recruited through hospital-based research units who were all actively psychotic on enrolment; 84 healthy controls were recruited through newspaper advertisements and word of mouth. Exclusions: medical condition affecting the central nervous system, and having neurological conditions or taking drugs that affected cognition.

Setting:
Hospitals in the USA; time period not stated.

Intervention:
People with first-episode schizophrenia (FES) were randomised to receive olanzapine (2.5–20 mg/d) or risperidone (1–6 mg/d) for 16 weeks. Healthy controls did not receive any medication.

Outcomes:
Severity of illness (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Change Version; Schedule . . . [Full text of this article]

Corrado Barbui, Andrea Cipriani

Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy