Concomitant antipsychotic prescription is common in clinical psychiatry, although it is not an evidence-based practice. The aim of the study was to describe the prescription of antipsychotics in inpatients with schizophrenia and identify which are the factors associated with this tendency.

We reviewed retrospectively the psychotropic drugs prescribed at the time of discharge of 177 inpatients who met criteria for schizophrenia [DSM-IV-TR] on an acute psychiatry unit from 2007 to 2008.

One hundred and two patients (57.6%) were male. Mean age (SD) was 38.1 (14.6) years. The percentage of patients discharged on treatment with two or more antipsychotics was 43.5%. Although in the strict sense we should not consider it as polipharmacy, the most frequent combination was long acting injectable risperidone with oral risperidone (21.5%), followed by long acting injectable typical antipsychotic with oral risperidone (3.4%). There was a significant association between the number of prescribed antipsychotics and the total number of previous hospitalizations and the number of hospitalizations during the previous year (ANOVA p=0.001 and p< 0.001 respectively). No correlation was found between polypharmacy and age. There was a significant association between the number of antipsychotics prescribed and the use of anticholinergic treatment (t-test p=0.005).

Our polypharmacy rates are comparable with prior European data (30-76%). Despite of the clinical guidelines, antipsychotic polipharmacy is an extended therapeutic strategy not necessarily related with resistant schizophrenia. Most of the antipsychotic associations identified are not evidenced-based practice. More clinical trials are needed to determine the efficacy of different combinations.