What were the major findings of the CATIE study?
When the CATIE study was first published,1 many were surprised that it showed that the FGA perphenazine exhibited similar effectiveness to the SGAs, suggesting that there was no huge advantage to prescribing the newer drugs. There was a statistically significant advantage for olanzapine over the other drugs. This was interesting in light of the fact that olanzapine also had the most discontinuations for side effects. For example, although olanzapine was marginally better for patients staying on medications, patients treated with olanzapine gained substantial weight, approximately 2 pounds/month, and had substantial elevations in triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. The CATIE study produced some interesting findings that confused many clinicians. For example, many clinicians had been persuaded that the SGAs were more effective and more easily tolerated than the FGAs. However, data from the CATIE study suggested that this was not clear and that the FGAs worked as well a
