Meta-Analysis Of The Efficacy Of Asenapine For Acute Schizophrenia: Comparisons With Placebo And Other Atypical Antipsychotics

Results PANSS change from baseline with asenapine exceeded that of placebo (LOCF: 3.7 [95% CI, 1.5–5.9], P = 0.001; MMRM: 4.1 [95% CI, 1.6–6.5], P = 0.001), a treatment effect comparable to other antipsychotics (LOCF: 4.1 [95% CI, 1.7–6.5], P = 0.001; MMRM: 4.6 [95% CI, 1.9–7.3], P = 0.001). Head-to-head network meta-analysis reported comparable efficacy with asenapine and other AAPs; PANSS differences ranged from 3.9 points better than ziprasidone (95% CI, 0.3–7.4) to 2.9 points worse than olanzapine (95% CI, -5.-0.1). Discussion These meta-analyses demonstrate superiority of asenapine over placebo in acute schizophrenia, with treatment effects of asenapine at least comparable to antipsychotics used in the same studies. Further, the network meta-analysis suggests the efficacy of asenapine for acute schizophrenia is comparable to that of established AAPs.