A Case Study To Assess The Response & Safety Of Ablify

Overview

To determine effectiveness of Abilify on patients suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a number of case studies have been carried out. A case study can be described as a detailed analysis of a person or group from a social, psychological or medical point of view. In this instance, a case study was carried out in order to check if Abilify is beneficial to elderly patients suffering from mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and to what extent it helps them in fighting their disorders.

One such case study is presented in the following article which studies the effectiveness of Abilify in elderly people suffering from mental problems including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Objective

The objective of this case study was to assess the response and safety of Abilify treatment in elderly patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. It included patients who did not exhibit all the symptoms of schizophrenia but only some of them.

Patient Details

Data was obtained from their medical records. Abilify was used to treat 10 elderly hospitalized patients between 62 and 85 years of age who demonstrated signs of psychosis related to schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. All patients had been treated previously with different and standard antipsychotic medicines. Response was assessed by Clinical Observation of Patients' Behavior and Clinical Global Impression Scale that judged the performance of the patients on the scale of 10.

Findings

It was found that seven patients responded to treatment, two did not respond, and one had a partial response. The mean Clinical Global Impression Scale scores improved from 6 (severely ill) at baseline to 2.3 (much improved) which lead to patients’ discharge from the hospital. Treatment was discontinued in two patients who did not respond to Abilify. Out of the seven patients who responded, four had exhibited positive symptoms and showed significant improvement. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia meaning to say that there were those patients who exhibited symptoms specific to schizophrenia. Therefore these positive symptoms involve excesses or distortions of normal functions, including delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, paranoia and grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior. Also, three patients presented with positive and negative symptoms and both symptoms improved significantly due to use of abilify. Negative symptoms involve deficits in normal behavior, such as a lack of motivation and social withdrawal.

Four patients had pre-existing symptoms of side effects which decreased in three patients. In addition, two patients were able to discontinue anti-Parkinson medications. A patient who suffered from severe tardive dyskinesia or involuntary movements of tongue showed significant improvement in symptoms.

Conclusion

It was found that Abilify is effective in reducing both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and adverse reactions such as tardive dyskinesia, sedation, weight gain, anticholinergic effects and QTc prolongation. It was concluded that Abilify may be a safe and helpful medication for elderly patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.