Therapeutic effect and safety of adjunctive risperidone in refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

It has been well established that more than 40 percent of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) do not improve after an adequate trial with serotonin uptake inhibitors (SUIs). The first purpose of this trial was to compare the short-term efficacy and safety of two different strategies in a sample of treatment-refractory OCD patients: dose increase of the ongoing treatment versus the addition of another SUI. The second purpose was to investigate the short-term efficacy and safety of adjunctive risperidone in SUI-refractory OCD patients. Thirty-three OCD patients who were unimproved after a short-term treatment with clomipramine (150 mg/day) were admitted to the study. In the first part of the study, the dose increase of clomipramine was compared with sertraline addition, in an open-label manner. The addition of sertraline to the ongoing treatment appeared to be more effective and tolerable than the clomipramine dose increase. Seven (50%) of the 14 patients who were considered nonresponders after the first part of the study, showed good clinical improvement and good tolerability after risperidone augmentation. These results suggest that risperidone addition to ongoing SUIs may be useful in augmenting pharmacologic response in OCD.