An interim analysis of 1 year outcomes in schizophrenia patients enrolled in e-STAR in Australia and treated with RLAI continuously for 12 months.

e-STAR is a secure web-based, international, long-term (1 year retrospective, 2 years prospective) observational study of schizophrenia patients who initiate a new antipsychotic drug during their routine clinical management.

Currently, 315 patients have received RLAI continuously for 12 months; mean age 39.6 years, 68.9% male, mean duration of illness at baseline 11.8 years. Mean Clinical Global Impression Severity (CGI-S) scores at baseline (4.6) decreased significantly at 3, 6 and 12 months (n=284) (4.0, 3.7, 3.7, respectively; all p<0.001 vs baseline) indicating a reduction in illness severity from moderately-marked to mildly-moderate at month 3 and maintained to 1 year. The proportion of patients with CGI-S scores of 1–3 (not ill to mild severity) increased from 12.7% at baseline to 40.8% at 12 months (p<0.0001). Mean Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale scores improved from 41.7 at baseline (serious impairment) to 56.7 (moderate impairment) at 12 months with improvements evident from month 3 after the start of RLAI (p<0.001 for both timepoints). Other significant improvements included fewer hospital stays (p<0.001) and rehospitalisations (p<0.001), reduced suicidal ideation (p=0.008) and violent behaviour (p=0.03), and decreased use of concomitant psychiatric medication.

These interim data show that a significant degree of clinical improvement and reduction in hospitalisation occurs early at 3 months in patients treated with RLAI and is maintained with continued treatment over 12 months.