To assess the effectiveness of aripiprazole once-monthly in the maintenance treatment of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR®), in a naturalistic care setting by comparing it to an existing long-acting antipsychotic, paliperidone palmitate.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
295
Oral aripiprazole tablets according to Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC)/United States Prescription Information (USPI) daily for 4 weeks followed by the 1st aripiprazole intramuscular (IM) injection at the end of Week 4. Oral tablets were taken for 2 more weeks after the 1st injection. Starting at the end of Week 8, additional injections were given every 4 weeks until Week 24.
Oral paliperidone tablets according to SmPC/USPI daily for 3 weeks followed by 2 paliperidone palmitate IM injections at Weeks 3 and 4, respectively. Starting at the end of Week 8, additional injections were given every 4 weeks until Week 24.
US002
Los Angeles, California, United States
US006
San Diego, California, United States
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in Quality of Life Scale (QLS) Total Score
The QLS is a clinician-rated scale designed to assess deficit symptoms of schizophrenia and functioning during the preceding 4 weeks. The QLS consists of 21 items in 4 domains: Interpersonal Relations (eight items), Instrumental Role (four items), Intrapsychic Foundations (seven items), and Common Objects and Activities (two items). Each item was rated on a 7-point scale, from 0 (severe impairment) to 6 (normal or unimpaired functioning). Definitions were provided for 4 anchor points of the 7 points. Each item had a brief description of the judgement to be made and a set of suggested probes for the clinician. The total score was calculated as the sum of all 21 items giving a range of 0 to 126, where the higher score indicated normal or unimpaired functioning.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 28
Investigator's Assessment Questionnaire (IAQ) Total Score at Week 28
The IAQ is a clinician-rated scale designed to assess the relative effectiveness (efficacy, safety and tolerability) of antipsychotic medications in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The IAQ consists of 12 items: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, other efficacy symptoms, cognition, energy, mood, somnolence, weight gain, signs and symptoms of prolactin elevation, akathisia, EPS (other than akathisia) and other safety or tolerability issues. For each item, the current medication was compared with previous antipsychotic medication on a five-point scale from 1 (Much better) to 5 (Much worse), or that item is Not applicable. The sum of the 12 items ranged from 12 (the current medication was much better than previous antipsychotic medication) to 60 (the current medication was much worse than previous antipsychotic medication).
Time frame: Week 28
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in CGI-S Score
Clinical Global Impression - Severity of Illness (CGI-S) score provides the clinician's impression of the patient's current state of mental illness. The clinician uses his or her clinical experience of this patient population to rate the severity of the patient's current mental illness on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (normal - not at all ill) to 7 (among the most extremely ill patients).
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Time frame: Baseline, Week 28
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in the 'Common Objects and Activities' QLS Domain Score
The QLS is a clinician-rated scale designed to assess deficit symptoms of schizophrenia and functioning during the preceding 4 weeks. The QLS consists of 21 items in 4 domains: Interpersonal Relations (eight items), Instrumental Role (four items), Intrapsychic Foundations (seven items), and Common Objects and Activities (two items). Each item was rated on a 7-point scale, from 0 (severe impairment) to 6 (normal or unimpaired functioning). The Common Objects and Activities domain score was calculated as the sum of 2 items (numbers 18 and 19) giving a range of 0 to 12, where the higher score indicated less unimpaired functioning.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 28
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in the 'Intrapsychic Foundations' QLS Domain Score
The QLS is a clinician-rated scale designed to assess deficit symptoms of schizophrenia and functioning during the preceding 4 weeks. The QLS consists of 21 items in 4 domains: Interpersonal Relations (eight items), Instrumental Role (four items), Intrapsychic Foundations (seven items), and Common Objects and Activities (two items). Each item was rated on a 7-point scale, from 0 (severe impairment) to 6 (normal or unimpaired functioning). The Intrapsychic Foundations domain score was calculated as the sum of 7 items (numbers 13 to 17 and 20 and 21) giving a range of 0 to 42, where the higher score indicated less unimpaired functioning.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 28
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in the 'Interpersonal Relations' QLS Domain Score
The QLS is a clinician-rated scale designed to assess deficit symptoms of schizophrenia and functioning during the preceding 4 weeks. The QLS consists of 21 items in 4 domains: Interpersonal Relations (eight items), Instrumental Role (four items), Intrapsychic Foundations (seven items), and Common Objects and Activities (two items). Each item was rated on a 7-point scale, from 0 (severe impairment) to 6 (normal or unimpaired functioning). The Interpersonal Relations domain score was calculated as the sum of 8 items (numbers 1 to 8) giving a range of 0 to 48, where the higher score indicated less unimpaired functioning.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 28
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in the 'Instrumental Role' QLS Domain Score
The QLS is a clinician-rated scale designed to assess deficit symptoms of schizophrenia and functioning during the preceding 4 weeks. The QLS consists of 21 items in 4 domains: Interpersonal Relations (eight items), Instrumental Role (four items), Intrapsychic Foundations (seven items), and Common Objects and Activities (two items). Each item was rated on a 7-point scale, from 0 (severe impairment) to 6 (normal or unimpaired functioning). The Instrumental Role domain score was calculated as the sum of 4 items (numbers 9 to 12) giving a range of 0 to 24, where the higher score indicated less unimpaired functioning.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 28
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in SWN-S Total Score
The SWN-S is a patient-rated scale designed to measure subjective effects of neuroleptic drugs to psychopathology, quality of life, and compliance over the past 7 days. The 20 items (10 positive and 10 negative statements) are grouped in 5 subscales (mental functioning, self-control, physical functioning, emotional regulation and social integration). Each subscale contains 4 items. Each item was rated on a six-point Likert scale, from not at all to very much. A score was calculated for each subscale, and the total score ranged from 20 to 120, where the higher score indicated better well-being.
Time frame: Baseline, Week 28
Change From Baseline to Week 28 in the TooL Total Score
Tolerability and Quality of Life (TooL) is a patient-rated scale developed to measure the impact of side-effects on the quality of life in patients treated with antipsychotic medication. The TooL consists of 8 domains: mood (worry-upset), function capabilities, fatigue-weakness, weight gain, stiffness-tremor, physical restlessness, sexual dysfunction, and dizziness-nausea. Each domain was rated on a four-point scale from 1 (no impact) to 4 (maximum impact). Total scores ranged from 8 (no impact) to 32 (maximum impact).
Time frame: Baseline, Week 28