Publication:

Randomized, single blinded comparative study of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor augmentation with olanzapine v/s amisulpride for obsessive compulsive disorder

Background Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) as an anxiety disorder. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are considered to be most effective and are the first line pharmacotherapy for the treatment of OCD. However, about 40-60% of OCD patients fail to respond to SSRI mono-therapy. Further, as many as 25% of patients fails to experience any improvement from initial SSRIs mono-therapy. For non-responder’s low dose augmentation with antipsychotics (risperidone, quetiapine, olanzapine, aripirazole, amisuplride etc.) has shown promising response, as compared to serotonin enhancers. The present study is designed to evaluate and compare the efficacy and adverse drug reactions of these two antipsychotics viz. Olanzapine and amisulpride as augmentation strategy in OCD patients. Objective of present study was to compare the efficacy of olanzapine and amisulpride as add on therapy for inadequately controlled obsessive-compulsive disorder patients on selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

Methods the present study was done at Medical College Jabalpur (M.P.) in the department of Psychiatry & Pharmacology. It was randomized, patient blinded study. 47 patients were screened for the study out of which 36 were enrolled and randomized into either SSRI+Olanzapine or SSRI+Amisulpride group. The patients were evaluated at baseline and then biweekly for 12 weeks to assess the efficacy of these drugs as augmentation strategy using Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS).

Results There was a significant improvement in Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) score and Clinical Global impression-Improvement (CGI-I) score in both the groups but there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in either of these groups on these three scale. No serious adverse drug reaction was reported in either of these groups.

Conclusions Both olanzapine and amisulpride are efficacious and well tolerated for augmentation of SSRI with no significant difference in their efficacy.