Effectiveness of clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, and haloperidol monotherapy in reducing hostile and aggressive behavior in outpatients treated for schizophrenia: a prospective naturalistic study (IC-SOHO).

OBJECTIVE: Antipsychotic medications may reduce hostile and aggressive behavior in schizophrenia. This study compared the effectiveness of antipsychotics in the treatment of aggression.
METHOD: The Intercontinental Schizophrenia Outpatient Health Outcomes (IC-SOHO) study compares the effectiveness of antipsychotic treatments in practice setting. Schizophrenia outpatients who initiated or changed to a new antipsychotic are followed in this non-interventional, prospective observational study for up to 3 years, with 6-months data now available on the entire cohort (N=7655). The presence or absence of verbal or physical hostility/aggression was assessed retrospectively for the period of 6 months before enrollment, and prospectively in the period of 6 months after enrollment (the study treatment period). At baseline, patients in five monotherapy treatment groups (combined N=3135) were prescribed one of the treatments: clozapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, or haloperidol, and had complete data.
RESULTS: Hostile/aggressive behavior was reduced during the treatment period. Olanzapine and risperidone were significantly superior to haloperidol and to clozapine in this respect. These results remained essentially unchanged when adjusting for baseline imbalances in age, gender, age of onset, and substance abuse.
CONCLUSIONS: As monotherapy, both olanzapine and risperidone were superior to haloperidol and clozapine in reducing aggression. The relative lack of effectiveness of clozapine may be specific to this study population.