A Study on Discontinuation Rate on Maintenance Treatment of Antipsychotic Agents in Schizophrenic Patients. |
Ha Hyun Bae, Eui Hyeon NA, Hai Joo Yoon, Eun Kyung Park, Jong Il Lee |
1Department of Psychiatry, National Center for Mental Health, Seoul, Korea. lji7542@naver.com 2Department of Psychiatry, The Catholic Of Korea Seoul ST, Mary's Hospital, Seoul, Korea. 3Department of Clinical Psychology, National Center for Mental Health, Seoul, Korea. 4Department of Clinical Trial Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. |
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Abstract |
OBJECTIVES Relapse prevention is a major therapeutic goal in the treatment of schizophrenia. However, many patients experience multiple functional impairments and treatment resistance due to recurrence. This study was designed to investigate the follow-up of patients with using antipsychotic drugs and to compare the total treatment failure rate, withdrawal reasons, and duration period of antipsychotic drugs. METHODS The subjects were 1963 patients who taking antipsychotic drugs under the diagnosis of schizophrenia. We selected 1836 patients using 10 antipsychotic drugs according to frequency of using. The rate of total treatment failure of them was divided into 6-month, 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, and 5-year according to the time of drug withdrawal. We compared the total treatment failure rate at 1 and 3-year between 10 antipsychotic drugs. RESULTS The total treatment failure rate of clozapine was lowest compared with the other 9 antipsychotic drugs in all the surveyed periods. When evaluating actual number of subjects, olanzapine, sulpiride, risperidone, aripiprazole, amisulpride, and haloperidol were lower significantly compared with ziprasidone at 1-year in the total treatment failure rate, but there was no significant difference between them except clozapine at 3-year. The results of the analysis based on the number of prescriptions showed that the total treatment failure rate of the atypical antipsychotic drug was lower than that of the typical antipsychotic drug at 1-year, but the difference was decreased over time except quetiapine and ziprasidone. CONCLUSION In conclusion, although there is some controversy about which drug to prescribe to the patient, the clinician needs a proper prescription considering various factors such as efficacy, side effects, price, and formulations of each drug. |
Key Words:
Schizophrenia · Antipsychotic drugs · Total treatment failure |
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