Effect of Olanzapine on Clinical and Polysomnography Profilesin Patients with Schizophrenia

Acute and short-term administration of olanzapine has a favorable effect on sleep in schizophrenia patients. This study aimedto clarify the effect of olanzapine on polysomnographic profiles of schizophrenia patients during the acute phase of illness aftercontrolling for previous drug exposure. Twenty-five drug-na ̈ıve or drug-free schizophrenia patients were assessed at baselineand after six weeks of olanzapine treatment on Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS), and Udvalg for Kliniske Undersogelser (UKU) side-effect rating scale and a whole-night polysomnography; fifteenpatients completed the study. There was a significant reduction in all psychopathological variables with maximum reduction inPANSS total, BPRS total, and PANSS positive scores. A significant increase in total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), nonrapideye movement (NREM) stage 1 duration, stage 3 duration, stage 4 duration, and stage 4 percentage of TST, number of rapideye movement (REM) periods, REM duration, and REM percentage of TST was observed. REM latency at baseline inverselypredicted the reduction in BPRS total and PANSS total and positive scores. In summary, short-term treatment with olanzapineproduced significant improvement in clinical and polysomnography profiles of patients with schizophrenia with shorter REMlatency predicting a good clinical response