New Atypical Antipsychotic Lurasidone Has a Good Metabolic Profile
Andre Pikalov and colleagues from Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported at the 51st Annual Meeting of the National Institute of Mental Health’s New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit (NCDEU) in 2011 on the weight and metabolic effects seen in short- and long-term trials of the atypical antipsychotic lurasidone (Latuda) in schizophrenia. The studies compared lurasidone to olanzapine (Zyprexa, at 15mg), haloperidol (Haldol, at 10mg), and placebo. Doses of lurasidone ranged from 20-120mg administered once daily. Short-term treatment for six weeks was associated with changes in weight and metabolic indices similar to those of placebo, while participants taking olanzapine gained substantial amounts of weight and had increases in triglycerides and cholesterol. Changes in glucose and hemoglobin A1C were similar on lurasidone, haloperidol, and placebo, but higher on olanzapine. In the long-term sample, mean weight gain on lurasidone at 12 months was 0.71 kg and metabolic parameters remained relatively unchanged.
Editor’s note: Multiple posters at the meeting composed a substantial body of evidence concerning acute and long-term studies of lurasidone, which shows that the drug has a weight and metabolic profile relatively similar to placebo and more favorable than that of olanzapine.
Although lurasidone has not been studied acutely or in the long term in patients with bipolar disorder, the safety profile of this drug in schizophrenia indicates that it may eventually be useful for acute and long-term treatment strategies in bipolar disorder. All typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs that have been approved for treatment of schizophrenia have subsequently been shown to have efficacy in acute mania, and given lurasidone’s similar actions in blocking dopamine receptors, there is little reason to expect that this drug will be any different. The results of actual studies of this drug in mania and depression are eagerly awaited.
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