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Long‐term outcome of depot neuroleptic maintenance treatment among chronic psychotic patients
Author(s) -
Tuninger E.,
Levander S.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1997.tb09928.x
Subject(s) - psychiatry , outcome (game theory) , depot , term (time) , medicine , psychosis , psychology , archaeology , history , physics , mathematics , mathematical economics , quantum mechanics
A total of 51 chronic psychotic out‐patients, with a median age of 51 years and median duration of psychosis of 23 years, treated with depot neuroleptics, entered a 5‐year follow‐up study with assessments of symptoms, side‐effects and plasma concentration of the depot drug (follow‐up (FU) patients). The outcome for 38 non‐eligible (NE) patients was obtained from hospital case reports. The relapse rate was higher for NE than for FU patients (71% vs. 50%). The mortality rate was 9%, and the median age at death was 47 years. Half of the FU patients completed 3 years of treatment uneventfully. Of the total of 89 patients, only 18% remained stable over a period of 5 years. The depot dose was approximately the same after 3 years (median 255 mg, range 50–1018 mg chlorpromazine equivalents).