Time to discontinuation of antipsychotic drugs in a schizophrenia cohort: influence of current treatment strategies.

BACKGROUND

Rates of discontinuation of antipsychotic treatment for patients with schizophrenia are high and evidence is limited by selective inclusion and high attrition in randomized controlled trials.

AIMS

To study time to discontinuation of antipsychotic treatment for patients with schizophrenia.

METHOD

All patients with schizophrenia (n = 396) discharged between 2005 and 2011 were followed until discontinuation (clinician or patient decided) of antipsychotic treatment or other endpoints. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses (with time on antipsychotic treatment as the dependent variable) using time-dependent variables were performed.

RESULTS

Clozapine displayed lower risk for all-cause (p < 0.001), clinician-decided (p = 0.012) and patient-decided (p = 0.039) discontinuation versus olanzapine oral treatment in the multivariate Cox regression. Second-generation long-acting injection antipsychotics (LAI) (p = 0.015) and first-generation long-acting injection antipsychotics (p = 0.013) showed significantly lower risks for patient-decided discontinuation than olanzapine oral.

CONCLUSION

Higher effectiveness of clozapine and LAI treatment versus oral olanzapine were identified in a clinical cohort of patients with schizophrenia.