Long-acting injectable risperidone improves quality of life in schizophrenic patients: a clinical case series Melhora da qualidade de vida em pacientes esquizofrênicos tratados com risperidona de longa ação: uma série de casos

1including schizophrenia. 2 The presence of negative and depressive symptoms and the cognitive impairment is related with worse QoL in schizophrenic patients. 3 Compared to conventional antipsychotics, atypical ones are effective against those symptoms. However, both conventional and atypical antipsychotics have poor compliance in oral regimens. In an outpatient clinic, 7 patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia disorder who were considered clinically stable and treated monthly with a long-acting typical agent for at least 6 months, were sequentially selected to be treated with long-acting injectable risperidone (LAIR) in a naturalistic, open-label study with a fixed dose of 25 mg every fourteen days per 12 weeks. LAIR was usually begun fourteen days after the last injection of haloperidol decanote (HD) and subsequently administered every fourteen days per 12 weeks. Patients were evaluated using the Brazilian versions of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale-Anchored (BPRS-A) for efficacy. Quality of life was assessed by the Brazilian version of the Heinrichs’ quality of life-rating scale (QLS). Those assessments were evaluated in face-to-face interviews via retrospective recall after every fourteen day-appointments. Interestingly, the statistical analysis was based on repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA-RM), which is a new approach to test the change of clinical data over time (at visit 1 to 7).