E. Tuninger et al., A 3-YEAR STUDY OF MAINTENANCE THERAPY WITH DEPOT NEUROLEPTICS - CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND MEDICATION AT STUDY ENTRY, Nordic journal of psychiatry, 48(6), 1994, pp. 409-417
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.