Asenapine : A Novel Hope in the Treatment of Schizophrenia and Manic and Mixed Episodes of Bipolar I Disorder

Schizophrenia is a globally prevalent, severe, chronic psychiatric disorder; leading edge research on the treatment of schizophrenia is carried out intensively both in our country and in the rest of the world (1-33). While impairing social functioning and occupational capacity, schizophrenia is an illness with a frequent occurrence of premature death due to its adverse effects on physical health (metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus (DM) type II, cardiovascular illness, etc.) and suicide risk (5-7). Antipsychotics have been used in the treatment of schizophrenia since 1952, in which chlorpromazine was used for the first time in the treatment of psychosis. However, impaired insight as well as the low efficacy and serious side effects of these drugs have led to poor adherence among schizophrenic patients (5-8). Both typical and atypical antipsychotics, which have been in use to date, are effective in treating the positive symptoms of schizophrenia whereas the negative symptoms and especially metabolic side effects of the drugs have remained problematic (9-19). Both typical and atypical antipsychotics display their effects on the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, basically by blocking dopaminergic D2 receptors. Moreover, atypical antipsychotics have a common feature of 5-HT2A blocking. That is why, some authors have named atypical ÖZET: Şizofreni ve bipolar I bozukluğun manik veya karma döneminin tedavisinde yeni bir ümit: Asenapin