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Phase V, Abilify, and Vanishing Akathisia

If you've been reading about Abilify for depression on this site, you've probably noticed that I've been down on Abilify for causing akathisia in a frighteningly high percentage of patients. In two recent trials, akathisia occurred in 25% of Abilify patients compared to 4% of placebo patients. What, exactly, is akathisia? That's still a matter of some debate. Let's turn to a recent Journal of Clinical Psychiatry article on the topic. Entitled "Akathisia: An Updated Review Focusing on Second-Generation Antipsychotics," the paper purports to provide "a review of the literature on the incidence of drug-induced akathisia associated with the use of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) and first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs)."

It provides a few different characteristics associated with acute akathisia, including:

• "Intense dysphoria
• Awareness of restlessness
• Complex and semipurposeful motor fidgetiness"

It mentions "...suicidal behavior has been described in patients with akathisia in case reports, both in patients receiving antipsychotic medication and in patients receiving selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)."A couple of descriptions from another journal:

• Increased tenseness, restlessness, insomnia and a feeling of being very uncomfortable
• On the first day of treatment he reacted with marked anxiety and weepiness, on the second day felt so terrible with such marked panic at night that the medication was cancelled

So we can all agree that akathisia does not sound like fun.

Now back to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry review article. What did the authors conclude? "The comparative incidence of akathisia among the newer antipsychotic agents remains poorly characterized." And "...SGAs are generally associated with a lower propensity for movement disorders compared with their FGA counterparts, an emerging body of comparative literature shows that second-generation medications are not completely free from inducing akathisia."

The authors go through a long list of second-generation antipsychotic medications. The drug that receives the least attention is aripiprazole (Abilify). The authors conclude that "in studies comparing aripiprazole with placebo, akathisia rates in the aripiprazole arm were similar in some studies, and higher in others. As with other SGAs, akathisia rates with aripiprazole were lower than those of FGAs." So Abilify causes less akathisia than older medications and it's unclear if it causes more akathisia than placebo. But, wait, wasn't akathisia related to much higher rates of akathisia than placebo in treating depression? Fortunately, the authors had a little trick to erase that inconvenient piece of evidence; they only examined trials trials involving people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. So the depression studies -- POOF -- vanished, along with their damning data.

Why would the authors want to censor negative data about Abilify? Well, one author is an employee of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc., and another is an employee of Bristol-Myers Squibb, companies that market Abilify. And the other authors: All but one of them have a financial relationship with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The best part:

Editorial support provided by Maria Soushko, Ph.D., Phase Five Communications, Inc., New York, N.Y., with funding provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

So a paper that excludes the most inconvenient evidence regarding akathisia on Abilify had major parts of the writing done by... a medical writer hired by Bristol-Myers Squibb. If one goes to Phase Five's website , the first animation that pops up says "Spinning Your Science Into Gold." I'd say that this article was indeed 24 karat gold. I hereby nominate all authors of the study for a much coveted Golden Goblet Award.




Citation Below:

Kane, J., Fleischhacker, W., Hansen, L., Perlis, R., Pikalov, A., & Assunção-Talbott, S. (2009). Akathisia: An Updated Review Focusing on Second-Generation Antipsychotics The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry DOI: 10.4088/JCP.08r04210

Update: See a related post at the Carlat Psychiatry Blog. A partial quote:

Publishing an article that was carefully crafted to draw attention away from Abilify's main liability was shameful, and is exactly the kind of deceptive editorial practice that we as a society can no longer tolerate.