Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are severe and debilitating psychiatric disorders. Despite the availability of numerous antipsychotic drugs, many patients still experience poor outcomes and treatment-limiting adverse side effects. Cariprazine is a novel antipsychotic with unique pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties. It is both a dopamine type 2 and dopamine type 3 partial agonist with 2 equipotent metabolites, desmethyl cariprazine and didesmethyl cariprazine, of which didesmethyl cariprazine has a half-life of 1 to 3 weeks. The objective of this article is to review the literature regarding efficacy and tolerability of cariprazine in the management of psychiatric disorders to determine its current place in therapy.
Keywords: bipolar disorder; partial dopamine agonist; pharmacotherapy; schizophrenia.