Clinical and social comparison of fluphenazine decanoate and flupenthixol decanoate in the community maintenance therapy of schizophrenia.

The clinical and social effects of flupenthixol decanoate and fluphenazine decanoate were compared in the maintenance treatment of a population of chronic schizophrenic out-patients over a period of 9 months. The results failed to show significant difference between the treatments, and in particular, reports suggesting specific advantages for flupenthixol decanoate in alleviating the negative symptoms of apathy, anergia and depression in chronic schizophrenics were not confirmed. It seems that chronic schizophrenic patients who are well established on one depot preparation are unlikely to be benefited by being changed to the alternative.