Impact of risperidone long acting injection on resource utilization in psychiatric secondary care.

Risperidone long acting injection (RLAI) is the only long acting atypical antipsychotic available in the UK. Its impact on NHS resource use has not been widely studied. This review of medical records was conducted to quantify the impact of RLAI on NHS psychiatric secondary care resource use, primarily in terms of episodes of inpatient hospital care 12 months before and 12 months after RLAI initiation. Data on number of hospitalizations and hospital bed days were collected retrospectively, from patient notes and hospital databases in four acute psychiatric units in the UK for all individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who were prescribed RLAI more than 12 months previously. Data were collected on 100 individuals (58 male) with a mean age 40.8 years (range 19-70). The median duration of illness before RLAI initiation was 12 years (range six months to 43 years). There were 62 admissions in the 12 months pre-RLAI, falling to 22 admissions in the 12 months post-RLAI. Number of admissions, we argue, offer a more reliable indicator of the impact of treatment than total hospital bed days in this type of study. In this study there were 40 fewer admissions in the 12 months after RLAI was initiated compared with the previous 12 months. This is important as readmission is a good proxy measure of relapse, and adherence to medication is known to be a key factor in relapse prevention.