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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 19.
Published in final edited form as: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010 Jan 20;(1):CD006625. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006625.pub2
Methods Allocation: random, no further details.
Blindness: single, rater-blinded.
Duration: 6 weeks.
Design: parallel.
Location: single centre.
Participants Diagnosis: (DSM-IV) schizophrenia.
N=56.
Gender: 24 M, 29 F.
Age: 19-46 years (mean clozapine=31.3 years, mean olanzapine=29.6 years, mean quetiapine=30.1 years, mean risperidone=27.9 years, mean control group=32.1 years).
History: duration ill mean clozapine=6.6 years, mean olanzapine=6.3 years, mean quetiapine=5.9 years, mean risperidone=5.6, age at onset: not reported
Interventions

  1. Clozapine: flexible dose. Allowed dose range: not reported. Mean dose: 207.1 mg/day. N=14.

  2. Olanzapine: flexible dose. Allowed dose range: not reported. Mean dose: 15.7 mg/day. N=14.

  3. Quetiapine: flexible dose. Allowed dose range: not reported. Mean dose: 535.7 mg/day. N=14.

  4. Risperidone: flexible dose. Allowed dose range: not reported. Mean dose: 6.7 mg/day. N=14
Outcomes Leaving the study early: any reason.
Mental state: PANSS total score.
Adverse effects: EPS (use of antiparkinson medication), weight gain (BMI), laboratory (serum leptin, triglycerid levels)
Notes
Risk of bias
Item Authors’ judgement Description
Adequate sequence generation? Unclear Random, no further details.
Allocation concealment? Unclear No further details.
Blinding?
Subjective outcomes		 Unclear Single, rater-blind. Whether blinding was successful has not been examined, but the compounds differ quite substantially in side effects. This can be a problem for blinding
Blinding?
Objective outcomes		 Yes Objective outcomes such as laboratory measures or death are unlikely to have been much affected by problems of blinding
Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes		 Yes The overall attrition was low (5.4%). Reason for leaving early were not assessed, only completer data were presented. But due to the very low rate we do not think that there was a risk of bias
Free of selective reporting? Yes Probably free of bias. The study focused on serum leptin and triglyceride levels which were adequately described
Free of other bias? Unclear Data on the allowed dose range have not been presented. Furthermore, the pre-study treatment was quite heterogeneous as 19 participants had never taken any psychotropic drugs while most other participants had a long history of previous treatment