Despite a favorable pharmacological rational, the prescription of antipsychotics depot formulation in patients with schizophrenia is low.

The goal of our study was to assess the attitudes of French psychiatrists toward the use of depot antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia.

113 french psychiatrists were interviewed at a congress of psychiatry, using a questionnaire to identify psychiatrists attitudes influencing the use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI) in schizophrenia. Multidimensional and cluster analyses were used to detect correlations.

According to data compiled by the german team of S. Heres (2008), two clusters of factors specific to the patient for the prescription of antipsychotic depot, have been identified: the cluster “high level of therapeutic alliance and high level of insight” on the one hand and the cluster “poor compliance to oral therapy and high number of relapses in the past” on the other. The most important factor against the use of LAI antipsychotics is a sufficient estimated compliance with the oral formulation. For first-generation LAI, the main factor is the risk of extra pyramidal symptoms and for second-generation LAI, it is the unavailability of the equivalent of oral formulation.

Among the reasons influencing the prescription of LAI antipsychotic, history of poor adherence to oral therapy is important. In contrast, the highlighting of a profile of patients with a high level of insight and a high level of therapeutic alliance, confirms the value of these forms beyond the traditional profile of non-adherent.