Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness, requiring antipsychotic treatment. Relapses are associated with poor prognosis and treatment adherence is a major factor in relapse. Long-acting injectable antipsychotics increase adherence, can reduce relapse and improve long-term outcomes.

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of paliperidone palmitate (PP) in terms of hospital admissions.

Patients were included in the study if they had been treated with PP for at least one year. The number of days during hospital admissions before and after initiation of PP was assessed in a mirror image design.

61 patients in the study had been treated for at least 1 year. The mean age of patients was 44 years old and 61% were male (n=37). The commonest diagnosis was schizophrenia (n=51).

In the year before initiation of PP, there were 64 admissions totalling 6089 days for all the patients, with an average of 99.8 days per patient in hospital. During the first year of treatment with PP, there were 22 admissions totalling 1412 days, with an average of 23 days per patient in hospital. 69% of patients had no admissions on PP.

In this naturalistic audit looking at admission data, treatment with PP resulted in a reduction in the number of hospital days by 76.8%. More than two-thirds of patients experienced no admissions during treatment with PP. This suggests that Paliperidone Palmitate can be effective in treating Schizophrenia as well as cost-effective treatment by reducing hospital admissions.