Psychiatria pre prax 1/2019

Cariprazine in the treatment of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a disorder characterized by multiple symptom domains, including positive, negative, cognitive, affective and aggressive symptoms. Effective management of negative symptoms is increasingly being recognized as one of major challenges of modern psychopharmacology. Recently, an interest in underlying pathophysiological mechanism of negative symptoms has encouraged a growing body of studies on the role of dopamine D3 receptors. Cariprazine, a dopamine D3 and D2 receptor partial agonist with preferential binding to D3 receptors is approved by European Medicines Agency for the treatment of schizophrenia and may be of particular use in patients with predominant negative symptoms.

Keywords: schizophrenia, negative symptoms, dopamine D3 receptors, partial agonists, cariprazine