Use of a disintegrating tablet form of olanzapine, may reduce acute or breakthrough symptoms of schizophrenia and improve patient attitudes toward future drug compliance, according to an article in the June issue of the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

In the study, the formulation (marketed as Zyprexa Zydis) was given to acutely ill patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (63 and 22 patients, respectively) who had a history of medication noncompliance. During the 6 weeks of the open-label study, patients began medication in a supervised setting and continued taking it after discharge from the supervised facility.

Patients who showed both a significant clinical response and improved medication compliance were switched to the standard drug formulation to see if compliance would change over the duration of the trial.

The adults in the single study arm showed significant symptom improvement on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), with 60 percent of patients achieving at least a 20-percent reduction in total score by the end of the study period. Patient perceptions toward medication compliance showed positive results at each time point as assessed with the Patient Global Impression score. Furthermore, the initial improvement in symptoms seen in supervised settings was sustained over the full 6 weeks of the study in both the patients who remained on the disintegrating formulation and those who switched to the standard tablet form.

“In my experience working with people with schizophrenia, Zyprexa Zydis provides dependable control symptoms such as hallucinations, disruptive behavior and agitation,” said Beth Baxter, MD, study coauthor. “The effective management of these breakthrough symptoms has helped many of my patients avoid hospitalization and the devastating consequences of relapse.”

Treatment-emergent adverse effects experienced by at least 10 percent of participants were agitation, anxiety, dry mouth, headache, insomnia, somnolence, and weight gain. Use of both forms of the drug requires consideration of positive dose-related effects versus need to minimize risk of tardive dyskinesia, seizures, and orthostatic hypotension.