Strategies for improving compliance in treatment of schizophrenia by using a long-acting formulation of an antipsychotic: clinical studies.

Despite evidence showing the importance of continuous medication in preventing relapse in patients with schizophrenia and the harmful consequences that relapse can have, clinical efforts often focus on hospital-based treatment or treatment of acute exacerbations of schizophrenia rather than on ensuring appropriate and effective relapse prevention. Inadequate compliance with antipsychotic treatment further deters from the goal of long-term management of schizophrenia; however, appropriate use of injectable, long-acting antipsychotic medications--especially atypical antipsychotics--has the potential to increase compliance and thus improve the long-term prognosis of patients with schizophrenia. A long-acting formulation of the atypical antipsychotic risperidone has undergone large-scale clinical testing, during which it showed significant improvement on measures of disease severity while maintaining an acceptable side effect profile.