Antipsychotic treatment and psychosocial interventions can reduce the risk of relapse and prevent functional impairment. The DAI questionnaire enables the effect of treatment perceived by patients to be evaluated.

To assess the attitude of patients to treatment on hospital discharge compared when the drug of admission is modified on discharge and when it is maintained.

A multicenter, naturalistic, retrospective study to analyse the immediate clinical outcome after a medical intervention in 1346 patients with schizophrenia in acute units in Spain. Clinical progression of the first five days of hospital intervention and at hospital discharge was collected retrospectively. Afterwards, the DAI questionnaire was completed.

1238 patients completed the DAI questionnaire. The average score was 15.6 (range 10–20). In the group of patients where the main antipsychotic drug during hospital stay was the same as that received at the time of hospital discharge, no statistically significant differences were found vs the group where the antipsychotic was modified (15.6 vs 15.4, p = 0.630).

At acute units the effect of the drug perceived by patients assessed through the DAI questionnaire on hospital discharge is similar for all antipsychotic drugs whether the treatment is modified on hospital admission or not.