Course of Psychosis in Schizophrenia With Alcohol Use Disorder: A Post Hoc Analysis of the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness in Schizophrenia Phase 1 Study.

OBJECTIVE

Patients with schizophrenia and comorbid alcohol use disorder remain understudied. This post hoc analysis evaluated data from Phase 1 of the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness in Schizophrenia study (January 2001-December 2004).

METHODS

Patients without substance abuse (except marijuana use) in the month before study entry were categorized into those with a history of alcohol use disorder (SZ + AUD) within 5 years before study entry and those without alcohol use disorder (SZ-only) per DSM-IV criteria. Time to first and recurrent exacerbations and hospitalizations were compared between disease states and between olanzapine and perphenazine, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone.

RESULTS

A total of 1,338 patients (SZ + AUD = 22.6%; SZ-only = 77.4%) were included. Time to first exacerbation of SZ was significantly shorter in the SZ + AUD versus SZ-only population (median = 5.4 vs 6.4 months; hazard ratio [HR] = 1.20 [95% CI, 1.01-1.42]; P = .039). Similar findings were observed for first hospitalization (HR = 1.63 [95% CI, 1.20-2.22]; P = .002) and recurrent hospitalizations (HR = 1.60 [95% CI, 1.18-2.15]; P = .002). The most common reasons leading to exacerbation in both groups were an increase in symptom severity and lack of efficacy. In patients with SZ + AUD related or unrelated to marijuana, perphenazine, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone were associated with significantly shorter time to first exacerbation versus olanzapine.

CONCLUSIONS

This post hoc analysis confirmed that patients with SZ + AUD had a worse illness course than patients with SZ-only and suggests that olanzapine may be associated with a longer time to first and recurrent exacerbations versus other antipsychotics in this difficult-to-treat population. Further research is needed to identify effective treatments for this important yet understudied patient population.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00014001.