LAUSR

Asenapine is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder. 1 Recent meta-analyses demonstrated that asenapine is well-tolerated and reduces overall symptoms in people with acute bipolar mania and schizophrenia. 2,3 Recently, a 52-week open-label, phase III extension study (NCT01244828 and JapicCTI-132,325) of asenapine (5 or 10 mg BID) add-on treatment for schizophrenia adults receiving antipsychotics was conducted. 4 The study included participants with residual-type schizophrenia (RTS), 5 those who received antipsychotics in a polypharmacy setting, those who received high-dose antipsychotics, those with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, and those with geriatric schizophrenia. A total of 157 participants with a mean Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale 6 total scores (PANSS-T) of 90.20 (cid:1) 18.50 at a baseline were recruited. 4 The change PANSS-T from baseline to endpoint was (cid:3) 5.48 (cid:1) 13.34. 4 Response rate was 18.3%. 4 One of the fi ve patient ’ s death during the trial might be related to asenapine use (the detailed information: Supplementary text). 4 Among the participants, 138 (87.9%) reported any adverse events. 4 The number of individuals who discontinued due to adverse events was 37 (23.6% 4 ). 4 Nasopharyngitis was the most common adverse event, occurring in 21.0% of participants, followed by schizophrenia (13.4%), somnolence (12.7%), weight gain (12.7%), and oral hypoaesthesia (10.8%). The authors concluded that asenapine add-on treatment was effective and safe for different types of schizophrenia patients. 4 However, this study did not consider the disease severity at baseline (i.e. PANSS-T) or age, resulting in heterogeneous characteristics and an unclear conclusion to