Asenapine effects on individual Young Mania Rating Scale items in bipolar disorder patients with acute manic or mixed episodes: a pooled analysis

Pilar Cazorla, Jun Zhao, Mary Mackle, Armin Szegedi

Merck, Rahway, NJ, USA

Background: An exploratory post hoc analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential differential effects over time of asenapine and olanzapine compared with placebo on the eleven individual items comprising the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) in patients with manic or mixed episodes in bipolar I disorder.
Methods: Data were pooled from two 3-week randomized, controlled trials in which the eleven individual items comprising the YMRS were measured over 21 days. An analysis of covariance model adjusted by baseline value was used to test for differences in changes from baseline in YMRS scores between groups.
Results: Each of the eleven individual YMRS item scores was significantly reduced compared with placebo at day 21. After 2 days of treatment, asenapine and olanzapine were superior to placebo for six of the YMRS items: disruptive/aggressive behavior, content, irritability, elevated mood, sleep, and speech.
Conclusion: Reduction in manic symptoms over 21 days was associated with a broad-based improvement across all symptom domains with no subset of symptoms predominating.

Keywords: asenapine, Young Mania Rating Scale, bipolar disorder, YMRS, antipsychotic, olanzapine