A Randomized, 8-Week Study of the Effects of Extended-Release Paliperidone and Olanzapine on Heart Rate Variability in Patients With Schizophrenia.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the effect of extended-release paliperidone (paliperidone ER) and olanzapine on heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: A total of 106 patients with schizophrenia diagnosed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) were randomly divided into the paliperidone ER group or the olanzapine group for an 8-week clinical trial, with 53 patients in each group. The time domain and frequency domain analyses including the SD of all the R-R intervals in 24 hours (SDNN), the SD of the mean value of all the normal R-R intervals in every 5-minute interval within 24 hours (SDANN index), the mean value of the SD of all the normal R-R intervals in every 5-minute interval within 24 hours (SDNN index), the root mean square of successive R-R differences, the percentage of adjacent R-R intervals that differ by more than 50 milliseconds, high-frequency power (HF), low-frequency power (LF), and LF/HF were adopted to assess the HRV of patients at baseline and after treatment for 8 weeks in each group.