Assess clinical and functioning treatment outcomes of risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) versus oral antipsychotics for patients participating in the electronic Schizophrenia Treatment Adherence Registry (e-STAR) in Spain.

e-STAR is a 2-year, multi-national, prospective, observational study of patients with schizophrenia who were initiated on RLAI or an oral antipsychotic. Data were collected retrospectively (1-year) and prospectively every three months (2 years). Outcomes included clinical effectiveness measured by Clinical Global Impression of Illness Severity (CGI-S) and patient functioning assessed by Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. Clinical and functional outcomes are analyzed using a linear mixed model controlling for age, gender, disease duration, baseline hospitalization status and antipsychotic treatment patterns. Results presented are based on the complete e-STAR data from Spain.

1,622 patients (63.6% male, mean age 38.4±11.2 years) participated in e-STAR from Spain, 1,345 were initiated on RLAI and 277 on oral antipsychotics. RLAI treated patients had significantly longer disease duration (12.6±9.5 years vs. 10.9±9.7, p<0.01) than those treated with oral antipsychotics. During the 2-year study, clinical symptoms and functioning improved in both groups. As revealed by the mixed-model regression, RLAI patients, compared to oral patients, had significantly greater improvement on CGI-S scores (-1.10 vs. -0.88, p<0.02) and GAF scores (16.4 vs. 14.6, p<0.03). Baseline hospitalization status and disease duration were significant explanatory variables in the mixed model regression.

This 2-year, prospective, observational study showed that compared to oral antipsychotics, RLAI treatment was associated with greater improvement in clinical symptoms and functioning in patients with schizophrenia.