Systematic review of patient and nurse attitudes to depot antipsychotic medication.

BACKGROUND Depot antipsychotic medication is used widely in the treatment and prophylaxis of severe mental illness. AIMS To review the literature on patient and nurse satisfaction with, and attitudes towards, depots. METHOD A systematic search of Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL and The Cochrane Library was undertaken, along with citation searches. Studies were selected if satisfaction/attitude data were described in the title or abstract and original data were included. Study quality was rated. RESULTS The search produced 1374 articles; 22 articles met the inclusion criteria, 18 of which were cross-sectional surveys. Of the 12 studies with relevant data, 10 conveyed a positive opinion of depot medication. Five out of six studies comparing depot with oral medication showed patient preference for depot. CONCLUSIONS High-quality data examining patient and nurse attitudes regarding depot antipsychotics are sparse. What data there are show a positive attitude to depots from patients. Future randomised controlled trials should include satisfaction as an outcome.