A prospective, multicenter, randomized, parallel-group, open-label study of aripiprazole in the management of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in general psychiatric practice: Broad Effectiveness Trial With Aripiprazole (BETA).

Objective: BETA was designed to evaluate the overall effectiveness of aripiprazole in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder treated in a general psychiatry outpatient practice setting.

Methods: In this 8-week, multicenter, open-label study, 1,599 outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were randomly assigned to receive either aripiprazole (n=1,295) or another antipsychotic medication (safety control [SC] group; n=304). Aripiprazole was initiated at 15 mg/d with the option to adjust between 10-30 mg/d. The SC medication was specifically selected for each patient by the clinician and dosed according to prescribing guidelines for that medication. The primary effectiveness measure was the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) score of the aripiprazole group at study end point. Secondary measures included response rates and preference of medicine (POM) ratings by patients and caregivers.

Results: Sixty-five percent of aripiprazole patients completed the study. The mean aripiprazole dose at end point was 19.9 mg/d, with approximately 39% of patients starting and remaining at 15 mg/d. At end point, the mean CGI-I score of 2.77 demonstrated that aripiprazole was minimally to moderately effective; the mean CGI-I score for the SC group was 3.59 indicating minimally effective to no change. Fifty-three percent of aripiprazole patients responded to treatment (CGI-I score of 1 or 2; last-observation-carried-forward [LOCF]), and approximately 71% of patients and caregivers rated aripiprazole as better than the prestudy medication on the POM (LOCF). Incidence and severity of adverse events (AEs) were similar to those reported in double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled aripiprazole clinical trials. The most frequent AE in the aripiprazole group was insomnia (24%).

Conclusions: Aripiprazole was effective for the treatment of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder in a general psychiatry outpatient practice setting. Overall, aripiprazole was found to be effective by the treating clinician and well accepted by patients and caregivers over the 8-week treatment course.