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World J Psychiatr. Dec 19, 2021; 11(12): 1228-1238
Published online Dec 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i12.1228
Newer antipsychotics: Brexpiprazole, cariprazine, and lumateperone: A pledge or another unkept promise?
Rajdip Barman, Pradipta Majumder, Tejaswini Doifode, Anita Kablinger
Rajdip Barman, Department of Psychiatry, Genesis Health System, Davenport, IA 52804, United States
Pradipta Majumder, Department of Psychiatry, WellSpan, York, PA 17420, United States
Tejaswini Doifode, Anita Kablinger, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Carilion Clinic-Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA 24014, United States
Author contributions: Majumder P, Barman R, and Doifode T performed the literature search with author Kablinger A as a consultant; Majumder P, Barman R, and Doifode T wrote the initial draft; Kablinger A provided feedback and elaboration on the manuscript; all authors approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We do not have any conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rajdip Barman, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Psychiatry, Genesis Health System, 1401 West Central Park Avenue, Davenport, IA 52804, United States. rajdip25in@gmail.com
Received: February 20, 2021
Peer-review started: February 20, 2021
First decision: July 15, 2021
Revised: July 28, 2021
Accepted: October 27, 2021
Article in press: October 27, 2021
Published online: December 19, 2021
Abstract

Antipsychotic agents are used for various indications in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Despite their proven roles in multiple conditions, the treatment-emergent side effects of antipsychotic medications, such as metabolic side effects, are often the limiting factor for their long-term and short-term uses. Moreover, antipsychotic medications are often criticized for being less effective in treating different disabling symptoms such as negative symptoms of schizophrenia. As a result, the search for safer and more efficacious antipsychotic agents is ongoing. Newer antipsychotic agents are gaining attention related to emerging efficacy and tolerability data in treating neuropsychiatric conditions. In this review, we attempt to appraise the scientific data on psychopharmacology, safety profile, and efficacy of the newer additions to the list of second-generation antipsychotics, namely brexpiprazole, cariprazine, and lumateperone. We conducted a selective review utilizing PubMed, clinicaltrials.gov, and Cochrane databases to gather appropriate publications, keeping broad inclusion criteria. There were no restrictions on the age of the study population or the year of publication. We also cross-referenced articles and references to capture all existing studies. Our review of the current literature indicates that all three antipsychotic agents appear to be promising based on their short-term studies, while long-term studies remain limited. There is also a need for a head to head comparison between the newer antipsychotics with the other antipsychotic agents to ascertain if the newer agents are any better than the others.

Keywords: Antipsychotic agent, Brexpiprazole, Cariprazine, Lumateperone, Psychopharmacology, Schizophrenia

Core Tip: In this review article we attempted to appraise the scientific literature on three newer antipsychotics such as brexpiprazole, cariprazine and lumateperone and presented their safety and efficacy data. Our aim was to investigate the status of these antipsychotic agents in treating various psychiatric disorders.