Rehospitalization rates of chronically ill schizophrenic patients discharged on a regimen of risperidone, olanzapine, or conventional antipsychotics

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the rehospitalization r ates of patients discharged from the hospital while being treated with risp eridone, olanzapine, or conventional antipsychotics. Method: By using Israel's National Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registr y, rehospitalization status was monitored for all patients with schizophren ia who were discharged from any inpatient psychiatric facility in Israel wh ile taking risperidone (N=268) or olanzapine (N=313) between Jan. 1, 1998, and Dec. 31, 1998, and a group of patients discharged during that time who were treated with conventional antipsychotics (N=458). Time to readmission over the course of 2 years was measured by the product-limit (Kaplan-Meier) formula. Results: The readmission rate for patients discharged while taking conventi onal antipsychotics was higher than the rates for patients treated with eit her risperidone or olanzapine. At 24 months, 67% of the risperidone-treated patients and 69% of the olanzapine-treated patients remained in the commun ity, as compared to 52% of the patients treated with conventional antipsych otics. Conclusions: This study suggests that the rehospitalization rates of patien ts taking the novel antipsychotics risperidone and olanzapine are not diffe rent from each other and are considerably lower than the rate for patients treated with conventional antipsychotics. The results confirm findings of p revious studies suggesting that the levels of overall effectiveness of risp eridone and olanzapine are not very different and offers evidence that thes e drugs are more effective in preventing rehospitalization than conventiona l antipsychotic drugs.