Psychiatria pre prax 3/2013

Practical aspects and several new horizons for the use of ziprasidone

Ziprasidone is a second-generation antipsychotic drug, belonging to the class of serotonin and dopamine antagonists. It is used to treat schizophrenia and acute manic or mixed bipolar disorder episodes. Its greatest advantage is a favourable metabolic profile with neutral effect on weight and relative absence of cardiovascular adverse events. Switching from antipsychotics with high metabolic risk to ziprasidone is associated with body weight reduction and lipide profile improvement. Optimal efficiency is achieved by rapid titration to the target 160 mg daily dose of ziprasidone. The drug should be taken after meals in order to ensure sufficient plasma concentration. Animal experiments have revealed neuroprotective effects of ziprasidone and thus also new implications for its use in the future.

Keywords: antipsychotics, bipolar disorder, manic episode, metabolic syndrome, schizophrenia, ziprasidone, mixed episode.