Past Issues

Objective: Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) provide a potential solution to overcome poor adherence to oral medications in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In this study, we compared variables of subjective experiences and clinical features of patients receiving LAI treatment with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Methods: Totally, 449 patients with schizophrenia and 45 patients with bipolar disorder who were regularly on LAI treatment for at least 6 months received the brief version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) questionnaire, Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptics scale, Personal and Social Performance scale, Clinical Global Impression of Severity scale, and lack of insight scale. We conducted a retrospective chart review in all patients to determinate the frequency of hospitalizations during their illness course. Results: The frequency of hospitalizations (times/year) was decreased signifi cantly after LAI treatment in patients with schizophrenia (from 0.26 ± 0.42 to 0.12 ± 0.45, p < 0.05) and bipolar disorder (from 0.53 ± 0.65 to 0.16 ± 0.40, p < 0.05). The overall WHOQOL scores and the scores of the four domains were lower than the Taiwanese norm in both groups. Patients with bipolar disorder had signifi - cantly higher social domain score than did patients with schizophrenia (p < 0.05). Conclusions: LAI treatment can effi caciously prevent the relapse of patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder with poor adherence to medications. Under LAI treatment, patient can keep a certain level of QOL and social function. We recommend LAI treatment as an extensive regiment in patients with poor adherence to oral medications.