Could a stronger dose of risperidone help when standard treatment fails?

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder * Able to give written informed consent. * Moderate psychosis persists although compliant with medication * Patients must have an inadequate response to two antipsychotic medications (can be risperidone, oral or long acting - but not required), at doses that are within the upper end of the standard dosage range * Patients must have a Clinical Global Impression - Severity (CGI-S) scale score at screening of at least moderate severity and a Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) score of 60 or below. * At the time of screening, eligible patients will be receiving or have received treatment with risperidone oral or Consta, or a combination that does not exceed 50 mg q 2 weeks of Consta or oral risperidone 8 mg/day for at least 6 weeks within seven years of study entry without satisfactory response as documented in the medical record Risperidone * Patients who have received Consta injectable medication within the specified dose range for no more than a month prior to the onset of the study will be eligible. Patients receiving mood stabilizers or antidepressants, or both, in addition to risperidone oral or Consta, will be eligible * Patients may initially be inpatients or outpatients * Females of childbearing potential will be admitted only if they are on stable birth control medication and understand that they should not get pregnant during the course of the study. * All patients must have stable housing at the current time or plans for housing following hospital discharge, if an inpatient. * Patients must be willing to receive injectable medication Exclusion Criteria: * Patients with a diagnosis other than schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. * Patients previously treated with doses of these agents higher than those allowed for at least six months and who failed to have an adequate response will be excluded * Patients currently taking clozapine or have failed an adequate trial of clozapine which lasted at least 3 months * Pregnant females. Females who are currently breastfeeding will be excluded. * Patients with a diagnosis of substance dependence at screening or up to one year prior to enrollment. * Patient with worse than mild tardive dyskinesia or history of marked Extrapyramidal Symptoms (EPS) at screening * Patients who have had neuroleptic malignant syndrome * Patients with a history of galactorrhea * Patients with uncontrolled medical condition(s) * Patients with a history of non-compliance to oral or injectable medication. * Patients unwilling to have injectable medication