EPA-0322 – Adherence and Reduction of Admissions in Patients Treated with Paliperidone Palmitate

Abstract

Introduction:

Antipsychotic long-acting injections have been a great progress in the management of mental disorders and have improved the adherence to treatment. Paliperidone palmitate permits once a month administration, has a good antipsychotic power, is well tolerated and has a few adverse affects.

Objective:

We want to study wether there is a reduction in the drop out and admissions in hospital rates.

Methods:

We take all patients in treatment with paliperidone palmitate from commercialization of the product two years ago (n=70), at two community mental health center in Malaga, Spain. We are going to measure the following variables: age, gender, average dosage, presence or not of politherapy with other antipsychotcs, time in treatment, diagnosis, attitude towards medication (using Drug Attitudes Inventory –DAI-), drop out and its cause and number of admissions before and after treatment with paliperidone palmitate.

Results:

We are analysing data. Up to date we have the following results: n=70; 65% male, 35% female; average 38,2 years, most of them in politherapy; average 339 days in treatment: the majority of patients has received the diagnosis of schizophrenia, although there are other diagnosis like bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, personality disorder and substance abuse disorder. We have observed a reduction of medication drop out and number of admissions, but it has not been measured yet.

Conclusion:

Our group consider (with the preliminary results) that paliperidone palmitate involves an advance in the treatment of schizophrenia and other mental disorders, a reduction of number of admissions and an improvement of adherence.