Rare research was reported about assessing the effectiveness and safety of amisulpride in Chinese patients with schizophrenia before we performed the ESCAPE, a multicenter, single-arm, phase IV study (NCT01795183). This study is a cluster analysis of ESCAPE study.

To identify the effectiveness patterns of amisulpride in Chinese patients with schizophrenia.

To examine baseline characteristics of patients as potential predictors of effectiveness.

Time-series cluster analysis was performed to identify effectiveness trajectories bases on Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores in Chinese patients with schizophrenia received amisulpride for 8 weeks. Baseline characteristics of patients were examined.

Overall, 295 patients were included for efficacy analysis. Four response trajectories based on positive PANSS were identified (Fig. 1): (1) rapid response (cluster 1); (2) gradual response (cluster 2); (3) sustained low level (cluster 3); (4) poor response (cluster 4). Age in cluster 4 was significantly higher than that in cluster 1 and cluster 3 (Table 1, P=0.0025 and 0.0032, respectively). Similarly, four response trajectories based on negative PANSS were generated (Fig. 2): (1) rapid response (cluster 1); (2) gradual response (cluster 2); (3) poor response with moderate PANSS (cluster 3); (4) poor response with high PANSS (cluster 4). Male to female ratio in cluster 1 was significantly lower than that in cluster 2 and cluster 3 (Table 2, P=0.0042 and 0.0208, respectively).

For the first time, we obtained effectiveness patterns of amisulpride-treated Chinese patients. Age and gender may be predictors of effectiveness.