A November 1st posting by PsychCentral:
By Rick Nauert, PhD, Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D., on November 1, 2010The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Latuda (lurasidone HCl) tablets for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia.
“Schizophrenia can be a devastating illness requiring lifelong treatment,” said Thomas Laughren, M.D., director of the Division of Psychiatry Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
“Some patients do not respond well to certain types of drug therapy, so it is important to have multiple treatment options available.”
Latuda is included in the atypical antipsychotic class of drugs. All atypical antipsychotics contain a boxed warning alerting prescribers to an increased risk of death associated with off-label use of these drugs to treat behavioral problems in older people with dementia-related psychosis.
No drug in this class is approved to treat patients with dementia-related psychosis.
Four six-week controlled studies of adults with schizophrenia demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of Latuda. In the trials, patients treated with Latuda had fewer symptoms of schizophrenia than those taking an inactive pill (placebo).
The most common adverse reactions reported by those in clinical trials were drowsiness, feelings of restlessness and the urge to move (akathisia), nausea, movement abnormalities such as tremors, slow movement, or muscle stiffness (Parkinsonism), and agitation.
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
