[If drugs are not taken - how different antipsychotics influence compliance of schizophrenic patients]

The effectiveness of pharmacotherapy partly depends on patients' compliance. However noncompliance with pharmacotherapy occurs frequently. It is particularly a problem in diseases requiring long-term treatment. On average chronically ill patients only take about half of their medication as prescribed. Especially patients with chronic psychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia, are known to have low compliance rates. Atypical antipsychotics or depot medication are believed to improve compliance. In our systematic literature review we identified ten studies analysing the differences in compliance rates between atypical and typical antipsychotics. However our analyses did not show a difference in compliance rates except for clozapine. The higher compliance rates for clozapine might be explained by the regular monitoring and thus frequent patient contact. A positive effect of depot antipsychotics on compliance could be explained by the easy detection of noncompliant patients.