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Published on: November 21, 2013
Antipsychotic prophylaxis is needed after remission from a first psychotic episode in schizophrenia patients: results
Geartsje Boonstra1, Huibert Burger, Diederick E Grobbee
1Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Adult Psychiatry and Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Utrecht, The Netherlands. g.boonstra@umcutrecht.nl
Objective:
To assess the effect of withdrawal of antipsychotic treatment on relapse risk in remitted first-episode schizophrenia patients.
Methods:
First-episode 1-year stable and remitted outpatients with a schizophrenic disorder were randomly allocated to continuation of their antipsychotic regimen for at least 6 months (N = 9), or gradual withdrawal (N = 11). Primary outcome was the difference in cumulative relapse-free survival at 9 months.
Results:
Recruitment was terminated prematurely on 26 October 2005. The cumulative relapse-free survival was 88% (SE = 0.12) in the continuation and 18% (SE = 0.12) in the discontinuation group (P = 0.001) at 9 months follow-up.
Conclusions:
Discontinuation of antipsychotic medication markedly increases the risk of relapse in stable remitted first-episode schizophrenia patients. In future studies the topics of safety monitoring and sampling of patients should receive extra attention.
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