Prescription Patterns in the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine prescribing patterns for the pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia in a sample of Argentinean psychiatrists and to compare some results with those obtained in a previous survey done on a similar population. Methods: A self-administered survey was conducted among psychiatrists who attended a conference of psychopharmacology held in August 2012 in Buenos Aires city. Answers were analyzed descriptively and some of them were compared with results of another survey done in 2006 in a psychiatry conference. Results: Ninety six percent of the surveyed psychiatrists considered that every schizophrenic patient with an acute episode must be pharmacologically treated. For the acute and chronic treatment of positive symptoms most psychiatrists chose risperidone, haloperidol, olanzapine and quetiapine. In contrast, for the chronic treatment of negative symptomatology, physicians preferred risperidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine and clozapine. An increased choice of quetiapine and aripiprazole was observed between this survey and the previous one. Sixty four percent of respondents reported using antipsychotic combination, similar as assessed in the previous survey. Most preferred to maintain pharmacological treatment during the pregnancy, although changing the antipsychotic to haloperidol. Ninety eight percent stated that they use some kind of psychotherapy in the treatment. Conclusion: In the pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia, similarities between reported clinical practice and current treatment guidelines were observed. There were no significant differences in the prescription patterns referred by psychiatrists between 2006 and 2012.