Long-acting antipsychotics delay hospital admission: trial
Seven patients would need to be treated with the injectable medication to prevent one admission, the researchers say
Long-acting injectable antipsychotics can stave off the need for hospitalisation among younger adults with early schizophrenia, a trial shows.
In the US-based PRELAPSE trial, 39 psychiatric outpatient clinics were randomised to either treatment of all consenting patients with schizophrenia aged 18-35 with monthly long-acting aripiprazole injection (LAI) or treatment chosen by their psychiatrist.
All 489 participants (75% male, mean age 25-26 years) had less than five years’ life-time use of antipsychotics.
Some 12.5% of them had not been admitted to hospital for their psychosis at baseline, while between 17 and 21% had experienced five or more such hospitalisations, the authors report in JAMA Psychiatry.
