In children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders who respond to initial treatment with risperidone, continuation of treatment can control symptoms for many over the long term, according to findings published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and quoted by Reuters. Dr. Magali Reyes from Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Titusville, New Jersey, and colleagues compared the effects of risperidone maintenance therapy versus withdrawal in subjects with disruptive behavior disorders. Patients between the ages of 5 and 17 years who had responded to risperidone treatment over 12 weeks were randomly assigned to 6 months of risperidone or placebo. Of 527 subjects treated initially, 335 were included in the maintenance trial. Reyes's team found that 47 (27.3 percent) of patients treated with risperidone and 69 (42.3 percent) treated with placebo experienced symptom recurrence, a statistically significant difference. The time to symptom recurrence was also significantly longer in patients continuing on risperidone compared with those treated with placebo -- 25 percent after 119 days and 37 days, respectively. --More 23 19 Local Time 20 19 GMT
