Table 1.

Clinical and demographic characteristics of six patients with first-episode psychosis who received cariprazine treatment

Patient	Age, years	Gender	Cariprazine dosage, mg/d	Adjunct antipsychotics	Time to response, weeks	Cariprazine side-effects	Negative symptoms at presentation	Clinical outcome
1	37	Male	3.0	None	5.0	Mild initial sedation	Social and emotional withdrawal, blunted affect, poverty of speech, loss of interests	Improved affect, emotional expression and spontaneity. Speech more coherent and spontaneous. Started attending programmed psychosocial activities
2	28	Male	1.5	Lurasidone at 55.5 mg/d	1.5	None reported	Amotivation, avolition, active and passive social avoidance, anhedonia	Stated that they were feeling much happier, had managed to cycle short distances, reinstated their internet connection and resumed gym attendance
3	29	Male	3.0	None	8.0	Akathisia (tolerable) at the higher dosage	Amotivation, avolition, emotional and social withdrawal associated with significant decline in functioning (unable to hold down a string of jobs and had given up playing the guitar)	Activities of daily living markedly improved. He started to engage with the psychological therapy and started attending group activities within the early intervention service team
4	35	Female	3.0	None	4.0	None reported	Blunted affect, anhedonia, amotivation associated with significant decline in functioning (required a lot of support from her partner to look after herself and their children)	Improvements in motivation and energy levels and was able to enjoy activities and care for her children. Her day-to-day functioning markedly improved
5	24	Male	3.0	None	4.0	Initial nausea	Amotivation, anhedonia, social withdrawal, alogia, poor self-care and blunted affect	Increase in energy levels, reignited interest in activities, particularly recording music online. His interactions with relatives also improved, as did his self-care and hygiene
6	24	Male	1.5	None	0.5	Acute dystonic reaction requiring treatment with intravenous procyclidine	Amotivation, anhedonia, reduced emotional expression	Did not complete treatment because of significant side-effects