Sertindole Versus Haloperidol for Schizophrenia
To the Editor: Dan L. Zimbroff, M.D., and colleagues (1) presented interesting results of a comparative study of sertindole and haloperidol. Even though their results look promising, their study has some major limitations that the authors failed to discuss. The most important and puzzling is the high dropout rate of 51% in a relatively short (8 weeks’) study. There is also no explanation why 79 patients (16% of the whole study population) dropped out. Finally, it is not clear how many subjects were used to calculate the mean final scores in each group and why the numbers of patients in tables 2 and 3 are different.
1. Zimbroff DL, Kane JM, Tamminga CA, Daniel DG, Mack RJ, Wozniak PJ, Sebree TB, Wallin BA, Kashkin KB, and the Sertindole Study Group: Controlled, dose-response study of sertindole and haloperidol in the treatment of schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:782–791 Link, Google Scholar