Adjunctive quetiapine may help fluvoxamine-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder among female in-patients: A randomized-controlled study

INTRODUCTION: while around half of the patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder do not respond efficiently to current serotonin-reuptake inhibitors, the objective of the present study was to compare the effectiveness and safety of quetiapine versus aripiprazole in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, who had not responded effectively to fluvoxamine. METHOD: Forty-four patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, who had not responded effectively to fluvoxamine at maximum dose (300 milligram per day) and duration (twelve weeks), were allocated randomly, in a double-blind trial, to receive quetiapine (n = 22) or aripiprazole (n = 22), in addition to their serotonin-reuptake inhibitor, for twelve weeks. While treatment response was evaluated by the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), as primary outcome scale, Clinical Global Impressions-Severity Scale (CGI-S), as well, had been used as an ancillary measure. RESULTS: 54.54% of patients in the quetiapione group (n = 12) and 27.27% of cases in the aripiprazole group (n = 6) responded partially to the abovementioned augmentation. According to the findings, the mean +/− SD baseline YBOCS’ score, dropped from 31.18+/−4.93 to 27.97+/−3.71 (p < 0.01), and 33.27 +/− 3.90 to 30.72+/−4.67 (p < 0.06), by quetiapine and aripiprazole, respectively. In this regard, no significant alteration with respect to CGI-S was evident in either of the aforementioned groups. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that patients with treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder could benefit more from adding quetiapine, in comparison with aripiprazole, to their ongoing serotonergic medication