Patients’ perceptions of the use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics

The use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics is especially recommended for patients with severe mental illness who showed poor adherence to treatment. Symptom control provides the patient with a higher standard of care and reduces the number of involuntary hospitalizations. Despite the significant contribution on relapse preventions, patients’ views about their use are controversial, and literature reports that some patients have negative perceptions about the nature of this treatment and the impact on their quality of life. The use of long-acting injectable treatment in Spain does not have a specific regulation, and procedure to obtain informed consent depends only on the expertise of clinicians and the contingency of the mental health care services. We explored the patients’ perceptions about the use of long-acting injectables performing a qualitative study in a public University Hospital in Madrid, Spain. 20 semi-structured interviews to mental health outpatients have been conducted and collected data has been analysed through inductive thematic analysis. We identified barriers and facilitators related to the information process in order to analyse attitudes towards medication. The confidence in the professional was revealed as one of the most important variables for the patient, as well as previous experience with such drugs or the comfort of administration.

Keywords: Long-acting injectable antipsychotics, schizophrenia, coercion, outpatients.

Héctor de Diego Ruiz, Manuel González González, Emanuele Valenti, Ignacio García Cabeza, Patients’ perceptions of the use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 3/2019, pp 87-105, DOI: 10.3280/RSF2019-003004