Efficacy and Safety of the 3-Month Formulation of Paliperidone Palmitate vs Placebo for Relapse Prevention of Schizophrenia

There are many good reasons to be skeptical of new studies performed by pharma companies - not the least of which is if the study doesn’t give the results they want they typically don’t publish them. Additionally - there are statistical games that may be played in terms of how they measure the outcomes, or what they compare the medication to (and the dose level of the medication that they are comparing their medication to), or a placebo as in this case which just means that the medication is better than a sugar pill.

So - keep that in mind as you read this. Perhaps its good news, but perhaps its just marketing department working hard at increasing sales.

Conclusions and Relevance: Compared with placebo, the 3-month formulation of paliperidone palmitate administered 4 times yearly significantly delayed time to relapse in patients with schizophrenia. The 3-month formulation was generally tolerable and has a safety profile consistent with other marketed paliperidone formulations.

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