Yokukansan (TJ-54) for treatment of very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis: An open-label study

BackgroundAlthough schizophrenia affects all age groups, late or very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis has not been well studied, and various treatment issues remain unresolved. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of yokukansan (TJ-54), Japanese herbal medicine, monotherapy in a diagnostically homogenous group of elderly patients without cognitive impairment suffering from very-late-onset schizophrenia.MethodsForty patients of mean age 73.1 ± 4.8 years, fulfilling both the recent consensus criteria for very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis and the DSM-IV-TR criteria for schizophrenia, were assessed by the brief psychiatric rating scale, the clinical global impression scale-severity, and positive and negative syndrome scale at baseline and after 4 weeks administration of TJ-54 (2.5-7.5 g/day). In addition, abnormal movements were evaluated with the Simpson-Angus scale, Barnes Akathisia scale, and abnormal involuntary movement scale.ResultsA highly significant (p < 0.001) improvement on all measures of psychotic symptomatology was observed in all patients. TJ-54 was very well tolerated by the patients, and no clinically significant adverse effects were observed. Scores on all abnormal movement scales did not differ significantly prior to and after TJ-54 treatment.ConclusionPreliminary results indicate that TJ-54 appears to be an efficacious and safe herbal medicine for treatment of very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis.