A 3-YEAR STUDY OF MAINTENANCE THERAPY WITH DEPOT NEUROLEPTICS - CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND MEDICATION AT STUDY ENTRY

In a naturalistic 3-year follow-up study, 51 outpatients with a chroni c psychotic illness (92% schizophrenia) treated with one of four diffe rent depot neuroleptic drugs (perphenazine, flupenthixol, zuclopenthix ol, and haloperidol decanoate) were assessed at study entry for clinic al symptoms and side effects and drug plasma levels. The depot doses w ere transformed into oral chlorpromazine (CPZ) equivalents to make com parisons possible. Average CPZ equivalent dose (330 mg) did not differ among the drug groups, nor did clinical symptoms. Side effects differ ed somewhat. Only weak correlations were found between plasma levels a nd symptoms scores. Antiparkinsonian medication (APM) was given to 57% of the patients. An unexpected finding was a markedly higher clinical symptom level in the APM patients in spite of no differences in plasm a level and CPZ equivalents.