The type of treatment used for patients with schizophrenia and an improvement at Day 3 can affect the length of stay and symptom outcome.

To determine the influence of improvement at Day 3 in the lenght of hospital stay and hospital discharge in the case of patients with schizophrenia admitted to acute units.

A multicenter, naturalistic, retrospective study evaluating medical intervention in 1346 patients with schizophrenia in acute units in Spain.

The mean of hospital stay days was 23.3 (range 1–260 days). 49.5% of patients with improvement at Day 3 had a shorter length of hospital stay. 78.7% received treatment with antipsychotics prior to admission. The most common drugs were risperidone, olanzapine and quetiapine. 99.8% and 99.7% were treated during hospital stay and on discharge, respectively. The drugs most commonly used were paliperidone ER, risperidone and olanzapine. 99.8% of patients with improvement measured by GCI at Day 3 and 100% with improvement at Day 5 had improved at discharge. The percentage of patients requiring use of benzodiazepines or physical/mechanical restriction decreased as the days passed.

The three most commonly used drugs during admission were effective, but the action of paliperidone ER is to be noted (its use increased from 4% prior to admission to 43% and 44% during hospital stay and on discharge, respectively). The results of this study appear to confirm that symptom improvement should be obtained as early as the first week of treatment to achieve a shorter hospital stay.