Treatment with antipsychotics: The impact on the patient in the community

The assessment of new treatment strategies such as the atypical antipsychotic agents goes far beyond the assessment of psychopathology, and includes evaluation of their effects on a variety of needs associated with living in the community. This article provides some empirical data for such a multidi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean psychiatry Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 31s - 36s
Main Authors Rössler, W, Salize, H.J., Reinhard, I
Format Journal Article Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Paris Elsevier SAS 1998
Elsevier
Subjects
antipsychotics
Biological and medical sciences
community
Medical sciences
Neuropharmacology
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Psycholeptics: tranquillizer, neuroleptic
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopharmacology
schizophrenia
antipsychotics
community
schizophrenia
Human
Relapse
Controlled release form
Neuroleptic
Psychotropic
Oral administration
Schizophrenia
Route of administration
Quality of life
Psychosis
Need
Chemotherapy
Treatment
Follow up study
Community
Comparative study
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Summary:The assessment of new treatment strategies such as the atypical antipsychotic agents goes far beyond the assessment of psychopathology, and includes evaluation of their effects on a variety of needs associated with living in the community. This article provides some empirical data for such a multidimensional perspective in analysing drug treatment with conventional antipsychotics. We focus on two groups of schizophrenic patients discharged from a psychiatric hospital, who were followed up for one year. One group was treated with oral and the other with depot medication. The two groups were assessed on their needs for care, quality of life, and rehospitalisation rates. We found few significant differences between depot- and orally-medicated patients. However, patients treated with depot antipsychotics were receiving higher mean daily doses. Patients taking oral medication had a lower rate of adverse effects but were more non-compliant, which resulted in a higher rehospitalisation rate, confirming our assumpt on that patients take different risk-to-benefit decisions. Orally-medicated patients did not have a better functional status than depot-medicated patients.
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ISSN:0924-9338
1778-3585
DOI:10.1016/S0924-9338(97)89491-6