Friday, July 3, 2009

Long-Acting Risperidone Shows Benefits in Recent-Onset Schizophrenia: Presented at WCBP

Risperidone long-acting injectable (RLAI) is effective and well tolerated for the treatment of recent-onset schizophrenia, researchers stated here on June 30 at the 9th World Congress of Biological Psychiatry (WCBP).

Little is known about the use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics in recent-onset schizophrenia, and new atypical long-acting injectable psychotropic medications like RLAI may be a viable treatment option in this population, according to the researchers.

"Long-acting injectable antipsychotics have been traditionally reserved for treating poorly compliant, uncooperative, and severely ill patients with chronic schizophrenia," the authors noted in their poster presentation.

"Early in the course of illness, there are sound clinical reasons for using these agents," they wrote. For example, incomplete adherence to antipsychotics is common with high rates of relapse and incomplete symptom remission. Also, the early phase of illness can be a critical period since an aggressive relapsing course may produce accruing morbidity and persistent deficits, they added.

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