Does long-acting injectable risperidone make a difference to the real-life treatment of schizophrenia? Results of the Cohort for the General study of Schizophrenia (CGS)

Objective: The primary aim of this study was to compare the impact of risperidone long-acting injectable (R-LAI) to other antipsychotics on rates of hospitalisation in real-life settings. Method: The Cohort for the General study of Schizophrenia (CGS) followed 1859 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (DSM-IV) from 177 psychiatric wards of public and private hospitals across France over a mean period of 12 months. These patients were ambulatory or had been hospitalised for less than 93 days at study entry. Recruitment was stratified for long-acting second-generation antipsychotic use. A multivariate Poisson regression adjusted for confounding with propensity scores and allowing for autocorrelation was used for the calculation of relative rates of hospitalisation with 95% confidence intervals. Results: The mean age of participants was 37.65 years, 68.3% were male and 36.7% were hospitalised for less than 93 days at study entry. Altogether, participants accumulated 796 hospital stays (53.4 per 100 person-years). R-LAI patients were slightly younger and had been hospitalised more often in the past 12 months compared to non-R-LAI users. The adjusted Poisson regression analysis showed R-LAI use to be associated with a lower rate of future hospitalisation: 0.66 [0.46-0.96] compared to non-R-LAI use, and 0.53 [0.32-0.88] compared to use of other LAIs. Conclusion: Use of R-LAI was associated with lower rates of hospitalisation compared to non-use of R-LAI. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.