Schizophrenia-spectrum patients treated with long-acting injectable risperidone in real-life clinical settings: functional recovery in remitted versus stable, non-remitted patients (the EVeREST prospective observational cohort study)

BACKGROUND Previous studies showed functional improvement in stable patients with schizophrenia treated with risperidone long-acting injection (LAI). We therefore re-investigated functional improvement with risperidone LAI in remitted patients, in comparison with stable patients. The study was conducted in real-life conditions because of the high heterogeneity of the patients' situations. METHOD This was a multi-centre, prospective observational cohort study involving adult schizophrenia-spectrum chronic patients who were previously treated with risperidone LAI for 6 months. Remission was evaluated using the consensus criteria proposed by the Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group (RSWG). The primary endpoint was global functioning (assessed with the Global Assessment of Functioning scale, GAF) after one year of treatment. Social functioning was a secondary outcome. RESULTS The analysis included 1490 patients. Attrition rate was 9.1 % at the end of the study. 27.7 % of patients were in remission after one year of risperidone LAI treatment. The mean GAF rating score (62.5 ± 1.5) was higher than the cut-off previously used to identify patients with satisfactory functioning (60) and significantly higher than the mean GAF score in stable, non-remitted patients (48.3, p < 0.001). Social functioning was also high in remitted patients (21.0 ± 3.6 vs. 17.2 ± 3.7 in non-remitted patients, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION The results clearly show that after one year of treatment with risperidone LAI, RSWG-remitted patients have a high level of global functioning, which is significantly higher than in stable, non-remitted patients. Social functioning was also higher in remitted patients as compared with stable, non-remitted patients.