At this point, given the heterogeneity of published studies, it remains unclear if depot medication can reduce relapse rates and improve clinical outcome when offered to all patients in need of continuation treatment with antipsychotics. Before anyone can conclude whether or not all schizophrenia patients could benefit from a switch to depot formulations, several questions remain to be answered. Is depot medication associated with better continuation rates and outcome? How are depot medications tolerated as compared to oral medication? In order to clarify these important issues this study aims to perform a large multi-center trial in which schizophrenia patients in need of continuous treatment who are randomized 1:1:1:1 to two different depot preparations or to two different oral medications; patients will be followed up for a total of 19 months.
The primary objective of this trial is to compare all cause discontinuation rates in patients with schizophrenia randomized to oral antipsychotic medications (i.e., aripiprazole or paliperidone) versus depot antipsychotic medications (i.e., paliperidone palmitate or aripiprazole depot) over an 18 month follow-up period.
