Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Jun 2018)

Initiating/maintaining long-acting injectable antipsychotics in schizophrenia/schizoaffective or bipolar disorder – expert consensus survey part 2

  • Sajatovic M,
  • Ross R,
  • Legacy SN,
  • Byerly M,
  • Kane JM,
  • DiBiasi F,
  • Fitzgerald H,
  • Correll CU

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 14
pp. 1475 – 1492

Abstract

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Martha Sajatovic,1,2 Ruth Ross,3 Susan N Legacy,4 Matthew Byerly,5 John M Kane,6,7 Faith DiBiasi,8 Heather Fitzgerald,9 Christoph U Correll6,7 1Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA; 2Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA; 3Ross Editorial, Port Townsend, WA, USA; 4US Medical Affairs Neuroscience, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc., Princeton, NJ, USA; 5Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA; 6Psychiatry, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY, USA; 7Psychiatry, The Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Glen Oaks, NY, USA; 8Scientific Communications, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc., Rockville, MD, USA; 9Medical Affairs, Lundbeck LLC, Deerfield, IL, USA Objective: The aim of this study was to provide recommendations on initiating and maintaining long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) in individuals with schizophrenia/schizoaffective or bipolar disorder. Methods: A 50-question survey comprising 916 response options was completed by 34 expert researchers and high prescribers with extensive LAI experience, rating relative appropriateness/importance on a 9-point scale. Consensus was determined using chi-square test of score distributions. Results of 21 questions comprising 339 response options regarding LAI initiation, maintenance treatment, adequate trial definition, identifying treatment nonresponse, and switching are reported. Results: Experts agreed that the most important LAI selection factor was patient response/tolerability to previous antipsychotics. An adequate therapeutic LAI trial was defined as the time to steady state ± 1–2 injection cycles. Experts suggested that oral efficacy and tolerability should be established before switching to an LAI, without consensus on the required time, and that the time for oral supplementation and next injection interval should be determined by the time to attainment of therapeutic LAI levels. Most experts agreed that ≥1 adequate LAI trial is needed to identify the lack of efficacy. There was little agreement about strategies for switching between LAIs. Conclusion: Expert guidance may aid clinicians in their decisions regarding initiating/maintaining LAIs in individuals with schizophrenia/schizoaffective or bipolar disorder. Keywords: expert consensus, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, long-acting injectable antipsychotics

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