The aim of the study was to assess patient perspectives of conventional depots and risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI). All adult patients receiving treatment with a depot were invited to complete a patient survey.

70 patients completed the survey, of which 20 were on RLAI. The mean duration of treatment with conventional depot was 12.1 years compared to 1.5 years for RLAI. Patients on conventional depot had an average of 0.58 admissions each over the past two years compared to 0.8 for RLAI patients. 72% of conventional depot patients had been relapse-free during the past two years compared to 45% of RLAI patients.

33.3% of patients on RLAI reported no side-effects compared to 10.2% on conventional depots. 77.6% of conventional depot patients reported that their treatment was effective, compared to 61.9% with RLAI. 61.2% of conventional patients reported that they were satisfied with their treatment compared to 47.6% with RLAI.

Although RLAI was generally better tolerated than conventional depots, more patients on conventional depots rated their treatment as effective, and satisfaction levels were also higher. However, other studies have found high patient satisfaction with RLAI1, and a review of the literature2 found that side-effects are one of the main drivers of patient satisfaction.

A limitation of this study is the differences between the two treatment groups in baseline demographics and this may have impacted on the results. Patient satisfaction with treatment is based on many variables and further research into this is needed.