Comparative study on negative symptoms of schizophrenia treated with amisulpride and other second-generation antipsychotics: a meta-analysis

Objective To compare the efficacy of amisulpride and other SGAs in treating the negative symptoms of Schizophrenia. Methods The randomized controlled trials(RCTs) about Schizophrenia treated with amisulpride and other SGAs from Jan 1995 to Mar 2013 were searched in The Pubmed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, WanFang Data, CNKI and VIP.Two reviewers independently screened the literatures, extracted the data, and evaluated the methodological quality.Than meta-analyses were conducted by using RevMan 5.1and Stata 12.0 software. Results The total13 RCTs were included.Among the 1814 patients involved.The results of meta-analyses showed that the score of PANSS-N was no significant differences between two groups(MD=-0.33, 95%CI: (-0.87, 0.21), Z=1.20, P=0.23); and the score of SANS was no significant differences between two groups(MD=-0.21, 95%CI: (-1.51, 1.50), Z=0.31, P=0.76). The side effects were more in other SGAs group than those in amisulpride group. Conclusion Amisulpride is as effective as other SGAs for the treatment of schizophrenia with predominantly negative symptoms, and it has more advantage than other SGAs in safety. Key words: Amisulpride; Second-generation antipsychotics; Schizophrenia; Negative symptoms; Meta-analysis