TY - JOUR
T1 - Ethnic differences in response to atypical antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia
T2 - individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled registration trials submitted to the Dutch Medicines Evaluation Board
AU - Storosum, Bram W. C.
AU - Steinz, Cedrine
AU - Cohen, Sem E.
AU - Mattila, Taina
AU - Brink, Wim van den
AU - Roes, Kit
AU - de Haan, Lieuwe
AU - Denys, Damiaan A. J. P.
AU - Zantvoord, Jasper B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
PY - 2023/3/2
Y1 - 2023/3/2
N2 - Background Little is known about the effect of ethnicity on the response to antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia. Aims To determine whether ethnicity moderates the response to antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia, and whether this moderation is independent of confounders. Method We analysed 18 short-term, placebo-controlled registration trials of atypical antipsychotic medications in patients with schizophrenia (N = 3880). A two-step, random-effects, individual patient data meta-analysis was applied to establish the moderating effect of ethnicity (White versus Black) on symptom improvement according to the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and on response, defined as >30% BPRS reduction. These analyses were corrected for baseline severity, baseline negative symptoms, age and gender. A conventional meta-analysis was performed to determine the effect size of antipsychotic treatment for each ethnic group separately. Results In the complete data-set, 61% of patients were White, 25.6% of patients were Black and 13.4% of patients were of other ethnicities. Ethnicity did not moderate the efficacy of antipsychotic treatment: pooled β-coefficient for the interaction between treatment and ethnic group was -0.582 (95% CI -2.567 to 1.412) for mean BPRS change, with an odds ratio of 0.875 (95% CI 0.510-1.499) for response. These results were not modified by confounders. Conclusions Atypical antipsychotic medication is equally effective in both Black and White patients with schizophrenia. In registration trials, White and Black patients were overrepresented relative to other ethnic groups, limiting the generalisability of our findings.
AB - Background Little is known about the effect of ethnicity on the response to antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia. Aims To determine whether ethnicity moderates the response to antipsychotic medication in patients with schizophrenia, and whether this moderation is independent of confounders. Method We analysed 18 short-term, placebo-controlled registration trials of atypical antipsychotic medications in patients with schizophrenia (N = 3880). A two-step, random-effects, individual patient data meta-analysis was applied to establish the moderating effect of ethnicity (White versus Black) on symptom improvement according to the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and on response, defined as >30% BPRS reduction. These analyses were corrected for baseline severity, baseline negative symptoms, age and gender. A conventional meta-analysis was performed to determine the effect size of antipsychotic treatment for each ethnic group separately. Results In the complete data-set, 61% of patients were White, 25.6% of patients were Black and 13.4% of patients were of other ethnicities. Ethnicity did not moderate the efficacy of antipsychotic treatment: pooled β-coefficient for the interaction between treatment and ethnic group was -0.582 (95% CI -2.567 to 1.412) for mean BPRS change, with an odds ratio of 0.875 (95% CI 0.510-1.499) for response. These results were not modified by confounders. Conclusions Atypical antipsychotic medication is equally effective in both Black and White patients with schizophrenia. In registration trials, White and Black patients were overrepresented relative to other ethnic groups, limiting the generalisability of our findings.
KW - Schizophrenia
KW - antipsychotics
KW - efficacy
KW - ethnicity
KW - individual participant data meta-analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149422717&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.19
DO - https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.19
M3 - Article
C2 - 36861144
SN - 2056-4724
VL - 9
JO - BJPsych Open
JF - BJPsych Open
IS - 2
M1 - e45
ER -