Reply to Letter to the Editor "Olanzapine Versus Other Antipsychotics in the Treatment of Schizophrenia"

Letter to the Editor

Sir: We appreciate the opportunity to respond to the comments made in print by Dr. Masand. We agree with Dr. Masand that the main objective of the EFESO study was to assess the safety of olanzapine and confirm differences regarding extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) between the olanzapine group and the control group. This is acknowledged in the introduction section of the article. We consider that this was a reasonable main objective for the study, taking into account when the study was designed and the low incidence of EPS observed in the pivotal controlled clinical trials during treatment with olanzapine in comparison with other antipsychotics.