The criteria of remission in schizophrenia has been reviewed and updated by Dra. Andreasen and collaborators. They define remission of the severity of the diagnostic symptoms of schizophrenia when the patient obtains a punctuation ≤3 for each of the 8 main items of the PANSS (positive and negative syndrome scale) during a period of 6 or more months.

The aims of this project is to investigate whether there is a significant difference in the rate of remission, as defined by Dra Andreasen et. al., in group of patients treated by either Lon-Action Injectable Risperidone (LAI Risperidone) or conventional depot: Flufenazine decanoate or Zuclopentixole decanoate.

We examined the criteria of remission by Dra. Andreasen in 46 patients with schizophrenia, 21 patients treated with LAI Risperidone and 25 patients treated with conventional depot.

By analysing the data obtained after 12 months, the rate of remission in patients treated with LAI Risperidone was 56,4% and the rate of remission in patients treated with conventional depot was 20%. (significant difference p<0,05).

LAI Risperidone clearly increases the rates of remission in schizophrenic patients and favours the use of an antipsycotic monotherapy treatment. This results can lead to an improvement in patient compliance to the antipsycotic treatment and therefore a better quality of life and a better progress of the disease.