Lurasidone for schizophrenia: what’s different?

Abstract

Lurasidone is one of several antipsychotics approved in the recent past by the US FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia. Several Phase II and III studies have established that lurasidone is more efficacious than placebo. There are no available adequately powered head-to-head comparisons of efficacy of lurasidone with other antipsychotics. However, in contrast to some other antipsychotics, lurasidone is associated with minimal weight gain and no clinically meaningful alterations in glucose, lipids, or the ECG QT interval. As per the product label, the recommended starting dose is 40 mg/day and the maximum recommended dose is 80 mg/day. Higher doses do not appear to be more efficacious, and may be associated with increases in adverse effects, such as somnolence and akathisia; however, this tolerability issue was not observed in one recently conducted 6-week study when lurasidone was administered at a dose of 160 mg/day. It is recommended that lurasidone be administered once daily with at least 350 calories of food. Additional studies are desirable to directly compare and contrast lurasidone with other antipsychotic agents.

Keywords::

• antipsychotic
• cognition
• lurasidone
• metabolic syndrome
• schizophrenia

Financial & competing interests disclosure

In the past year, JT Kantrowitz has conducted clinical research supported by the NIMH, Roche, Sepracor, Novartis, Pfizer, Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline. He has consulted for Quadrant Health, RTI Health solutions and AgencyRx. He owns a small number of shares of common stock in GlaxoSmithKline. In the past 12 months, L Citrome was a consultant for, has received honoraria from or has conducted clinical research supported by the following: Alexza, Alkermes, AstraZeneca, Avanir, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Lundbeck, Merck, Novartis, Noven, Otsuka, Pfizer, Shire, Sunovion and Valeant. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Notes

Data taken from [50].