Past Issues

Font:SmallMiddleLarge
Share:
Patient Characteristics and Treatment Discontinuation in a Taiwanese Cohort of the Intercontinental Schizophrenia Outpatient Health Outcomes (IC-SOHO) Study

Chaucer Chiao-Hsiang Lin, M.D., Ph.D.1,2, Cheng-Cheng Hsiao, M.D.3,4, Yu-Shu Huang, M.D.4,5, Shao-Chun Ree, M.D.3,4, Mong-Liang Lu, M.D., M.S.6, Ruu-Fen Tzang, M.D.7, Sy-Ueng Luu, M.D., M.H.S.8, Teena Maree West, M.S.9, Winston W. Shen, M.D.6

Objective: This report was to present the demographic and clinical outcomes of
the Taiwanese cohort of the Intercontinental Schizophrenia Outpatient Health Outcomes
(IC-SOHO) study for the readership of Taiwanese psychiatrists. Methods:
The IC-SOHO was a three-year, naturalistic, prospective, observational study which
was designed to compare outcomes of outpatients with schizophrenia who had initiated
or changed antipsychotic medications. They were divided into olanzapine and
other non-olanzapine antipsychotic groups. Evaluations included clinical severity,
social functioning, health-related quality of life, and medication tolerability. Time to
treatment discontinuation was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: A
total of 300 patients was enrolled in this Taiwanese cohort, and 81.6% (245 patients)
of them received initial antipsychotic monotherapy. Despite the absence of randomization
in this study, no signifi cant differences were found between the treatment cohorts
in the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics at baseline of those two
groups. The mean doses of treatments were increased in those two groups over the
36-month period and the uses of non-antipsychotic concomitant medications remained
high throughout the study. Patients who remained at the end of the study
showed a clinical response to treatment indicated by reductions in CGI-S scores in
all domains, but these changes were not signifi cantly different between those two
groups. The estimated time to medication discontinuation for 50% of patients was
36.3 (95% CI 31.2, 38.4) months for those in the olanzapine group and 18.0 (95% CI
11.3, 30.1) months for patients receiving other monotherapy; the hazard ratio was
0.65 (95% CI 0.43, 0.99). But their weight gain was signifi cantly greater for the
olanzapine group over the fi rst 12 months of treatment. Conclusion: The results of
this naturalistic, observational study offer an important description of the clinical
characteristics and outcomes associated with the long-term use of antipsychotic
treatment of schizophrenia in a cohort of Taiwanese patients.
Key Word schizophrenia, observational study, time to discontinuation, olanzapine
Editorial Committe, Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry
9F-3, 22, Song-Jiang Rd., Taipei 104, Taiwan
Email/sop2@ms19.hinet.net │ TEL/886-2-2567-8295 │ FAX/886-2-2567-8218