Effectiveness and medication acceptance of olanzapine disintegrating tablets compared to standard olanzapine tablets in acutely treated psychiatric patients

Original Research

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Authors: Jörg Czekalla, Thomas Wagner, Alexander Schacht, Michael Kluge, Bruce Kinon

Published Date December 2007 Volume 2007:1 Pages 19 - 27

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S2300

Jörg Czekalla¹, Thomas Wagner², Alexander Schacht², Michael Kluge³, Bruce Kinon⁴

¹Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Germany; ²Medical Department, Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Bad Homburg, Germany; ³Max Planck Institute for Clinical Psychiatry, Munich, Germany; ⁴Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, USA

Background: This study compared effectiveness and acceptance of orally disintegrating olanzapine tablets (ODT) with standard-coated tablets (SOT) in acutely ill psychiatric patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals for emergency treatment.

Methods: Large, prospective, observational study at hospital emergency units across Germany in patients with a diagnosis or tentative diagnosis of acute schizophrenia treated with ODT or SOT. Clinical (CGI-S and CGI-I) outcomes, attitudes towards medication (Nursing Assessment of Medication Acceptance, NAMA) scale, suicidal ideation, and adverse events were assessed at start of treatment and after 2 weeks.

Results: Both olanzapine formulations, ODT (N = 247) and SOT (N = 207), showed similar effectiveness after 2 weeks. CGI-I improved in 92.1% of patients (ODT: 91.8%, SOT: 92.3%). In patients receiving both formulations suicidal ideations were reduced (ODT from 53.9% to 20.6%, SOT from 51.2% to 22.7%). ODT was preferably given to severely ill (SOT: 49.8%, ODT: 64.4%) and aggressive patients. Adverse events were reported for 6.5% of ODT- and 2.9% of SOT-patients. This difference was possibly caused by the characteristics of patients receiving ODT.

Conclusions: This non-randomized, observational study shows comparable outcomes and tolerability in patients treated with both olanzapine formulations. In an acute treatment setting, orally disintegrating tablets were preferably used for more severely ill and aggressive patients with low medication acceptance.

Keywords: olanzapine, acute treatment, schizophrenia, observational study