With studies showing schizophrenia to be treatment refractory in one-fifth of those affected, psychiatrists are exploring other options to the delivery of effective treatment. At APA’s Institute on Psychiatric Services in San Francisco, some of the leading experts in psychopharmacology led a research symposium on the benefits of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic medications.Said Steven Potkin, M.D., director of clinical research at the University of California, Irvine:
“Psychiatrists who were trained during my time of training, think that long-acting injectable antipsychotics should be used for the most refractory, noncompliant, and difficult to treat patients. However, there is accumulating evidence that very early in the course of illness that this should be offered as an option, since half of the patients with first-episode psychosis discontinue medication after they are discharged from a hospital.”
Research on part of the “accumulating evidence” on long-acting injectable antipsychotics was presented by Keith Nuechterlein, Ph.D., a distinguished professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led a randomized study comparing LAI risperidone with oral rispiderone in 83 individuals who had a first psychotic episode within the two years prior to the study. The results showed that after one year of treatment, participants who received the daily oral form of risperidone had a 33%relapse rate, compared with 5% in those treated weekly with LAI risperidone. In addition, individuals in the oral risperidone cohort were four times more likely to be hospitalized than those taking the LAI version.
“We were struck that these were among the most dramatic results that have occurred for long-acting injectables—and it was in first-episode patients,” said Nuechterlein, adding that not only did patients experience advantages regarding outcomes associated with LAIs, but the patients accepted LAI medication quite readily. (The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Janssen Pharmaceuticals.)
“This symposium was an invitation for psychiatrists to rethink when is it appropriate to offer patients long-acting injectable medication. Should it be reserved only for refractory patients, or should it be offered to people earlier in the course [of illness]… or at any stage of illness? Of course, LAIs are not for everyone, but our patients should definitely be given options.”
NAMI South Bay 