Aims – To assess using two well-know scales (DAI-30 and SWN) the drug attitude and subjective well-being of patients treated with haloperidol or second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) in four different Italian communities. Methods – The sample included 145 patients taking five different antipsychotics (APs) in mono-therapy: haloperidol, clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine. A stepwise multiple regression analysis (SMRA) was used to analyse the contribution of different AP treatments and of other predictors to SWN and DAI-30 scores. Results – Univariate analyses showed no differences in DAI-30 and SWN scores across treatments. The SMRA showed that SWN scores were negatively correlated with the severity of the psychoses (BPRS scores), while the DAI-30 scores were negatively correlated with the severity of the psychoses and positively correlated both with the length of drug treatment and with the use of olanzapine. Conclusions – Our study does not confirm a better drug attitude in patients treated with SGA with respect to haloperidol. The only partial exception is the better performance of olanzapine over haloperidol on DAI-30, which could be due to the lower use of anticholinergic drugs during olanzapine treatment. The differences between the SWN and DAI-30 may give good reason for the use of both instruments during AP treatments.
Declaration of Interest: No grants have been received for this study. In the last two years: Matteo Balestrieri has received grants from AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, BMS, Janssen-Cilag, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Innova-Pharma, Pfizer, Bristol, Abbott, Lundbeck; Guido Di Sciascio has received grants from AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, BMS, Janssen-Cilag, Sanofi-Aventis, Wyeth, Boehringer- Ingelheim; Elisa Maso has received grants from Pfizer; Cesario Bellantuono has received grants from Eli Lilly, BMS, Boehringer- Ingelheim, Innova-Pharma, Italfarmaco; The other authors have not received any grants in the last two years.
