Adherence to prescribed antipsychotic drugs is a crucial factor in predicting medium- to long-term clinical outcome in schizophrenia. A helpful approach to promote adherence in schizophrenia is the use of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics.

To evaluate:

– the global functioning and the hospitalization rate occurred in the year before and in the year following the switch from a low-efficacy oral antipsychotic to either a LAI once-monthly therapy (palmitate paliperidone or olanzapine pamoate) or the corresponding oral compound (paliperidone\risperidone or olanzapine) in schizophrenic patients;

– the treatment attitude and the insight in patients treated with second-generation antipsychotic (SGA)-LAIs and with the corresponding oral compounds.

Sixty adult schizophrenic outpatients: thirty were switched to LAIs and thirty to the corresponding oral antipsychotic. We used the following scales: Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI), Schedule for the Assessment of Insight (SAI), Life Skill Profile (LSP).

Number of hospitalizations per year decreased in both groups (LAIs: from 1.3 ± 0.5 to 0.3 ± 0.5; oral: from 1.3 ± 0.5 to 0.6 ± 0.5). We found a direct association between the “hospitalization event” and the oral drug compared to the corresponding LAI formulation (P = 0.049; OR: 3.05; 95% IC: 1.01–9.26). Patient receiving LAIs achieved a more significant improvement at the LSP score compared to the oral group (P < 0.001 vs. P = 0.0034) and higher DAI (5.9 ± 4.3 vs. −1.1 ± 4.3) and SAI (8.7 ± 2.9 vs. 5.6 ± 2.1).

Our data suggest that SGA-LAIs, improving the adherence to the treatment, may sensitively reduce costs in mental health services.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.