Objective:

We examined the effect of long-term aripiprazole therapy on social functioning in Korean patients with schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, or schizoaffective disorder.

Methods:

In this 52-week open-label, multicenter, single-arm study, 300 Korean patients with schizophrenia were treated with aripiprazole 10-30 mg/day after administration of 15 mg/day during the first 2 weeks. The primary efficacy measure was the Korean-Social Functioning Scale (SFS-K), and the secondary efficacy measures were the Emotion Assessment, and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) score and the Clinical Global Impression - Severity of Illness (CGI-S) to investigate for correlation between social functioning and clinical symptoms.

Results:

At week 52, there were significant improvements in all the areas of the SFS-K. There was generally no difference in the change of social functioning between patients in the first episode and patients having previous episodes. Significant improvements were also observed in negative emotion and emotional control. Statistically significant correlation between the SFS-K and the PANSS score was observed at week 52.

Conclusion:

The present study showed that long-term treatment with aripiprazole contributed to significant improvement in social functioning in patients with schizophrenia in the long-term treatment. This improvement of social functioning was modestly associated with clinical improvement of symptoms. The results suggest that long-term aripiprazole therapy could be effective not only in treating clinical symptoms, but also in improving social functioning in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. (Korean J Psychopharmacol 2008;19(5):256-265)