ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION Lurasidone in the treatment of schizophrenia: a 6-week, placebo-controlled study

Rationale There is an unmet need in the treatment of schizophrenia for effective medications with fewer adverse effects. Objective This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safe-ty of lurasidone, an atypical antipsychotic, for the treatment of schizophrenia. Methods Patients with an acute exacerbation of schizophre-nia were randomized to 6 weeks of double-blind treatment with once-daily, fixed-dose lurasidone 40 mg (N050), lur-asidone 120 mg (N049), or placebo (N050). The primary efficacy measure was mean change from baseline to day 42 (last observation carried forward) in the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale derived (BPRSd) from the Positive and Nega-tive Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Results Mean change in BPRSd was significantly greater in patients receiving lurasidone 40 and 120 mg/day versus pla-cebo (−9.4 and −11.0 versus −3.8; p00.018 and 0.004, re-spectively). Treatment with lurasidone 120 mg/day was superior to placebo across all secondary measures, includin