Aripiprazole in the treatment of acute episode of schizophrenia: a real-world study in China

To the Editor:Schizophrenia is a progressive,debilitating disease.[1]Safe and effective treatment performed during the acute phase is the first step to improve prognosis,and it is critically important.Aripiprazole is known as a dopamine system stabilizer,and it exerts partial agonism with high affinity at dopamine D2 and serotonin-1A(5-HT1A)receptors as well as antagonism at serotonin-2A(5-HT2A)receptors.[2]It has been shown to be efficacious in amelioration of both positive and negative symptoms of acute schizophrenia,and it shows better tolerance than most antipsychotics.[3]We conducted a real-world study to further confirm the efficacy and safety of aripiprazole in patients with acute episodes of schizophrenia in China and tried to explore the clinical variables,including various drug regimens,which may be correlated with the efficacy of aripiprazole,and provide a basis for the optimization of aripiprazole treatment for patients with acute schizophrenia.