Michihiro Takahashi¹, Shinji Fujikoshi², Jumpei Funai³, Levent Alev^4*, Masaomi Iyo⁵

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¹ Takahashi Psychiatric Clinic, Ashiya, Japan.
² Statistical Science, Lilly Research Laboratories Japan, Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Kobe, Japan.
³ Science Communications, Lilly Research Laboratories Japan, Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Kobe, Japan.
⁴ Medical Science, Lilly Research Laboratories Japan, Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Kobe, Japan.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan.
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Abstract: Discontinuation of antipsychotic therapy has been a significant clinical issue among patients with schizophrenia, since the patients who discontinued antipsychotic treatment showed worse clinical and functional outcomes, and higher risks of relapse of schizophrenia symptoms and hospitalization. We conducted a post-hoc analysis of a post-marketing research with a 12-month follow-up period to identify the predictors for discontinuation of antipsychotic monotherapy in Japan. This is a prospective, naturalistic multicenter observational study, designed to evaluate the discontinuation rates of olanzapine monotherapy and non-olanzapine antipsychotic monotherapy in Japanese adult patients with acute schizophrenia. Patients were treatment-naive, or had switched from other antipsychotics or from poly-pharmacotherapy to oral antipsychotic monotherapy. We analyzed the correlation of discontinuation of antipsychotic monotherapy with baseline characteristics of patients. A total of 1089 patients (578 patients treated with olanzapine and 511 with non-olanzapine antipsychotics) were eligible for analysis. By the end of the 12-month study period, 614 patients (56.4%) discontinued antipsychotic therapy. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated significantly lower discontinuation rates in all patients treated with antipsychotics: older age (Odds ratio [OR], 0.871; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.797 to 0.953; p = 0.003), outpatient status (OR, 0.508; 95% CI, 0.383 to 0.675; p < 0.001), prior use of antipsychotics (OR, 0.693; 95% CI, 0.516 to 0.930; p = 0.015), and olanzapine group showed lower discontinuation rate than that of non-olanzapine group (OR, 1.416; 95% CI, 1.086 to 1.846; p = 0.010). The present study indicated that the outpatient status, older age, and prior use of antipsychotics have better adherence to antipsychotic treatment. In addition to these factors, use of anti-parkinson agents showed lower discontinuation rates in the olanzapine monotherapy group.

Keywords: Predictor of Discontinuation, Antipsychotic Monotherapy, Long-Term Observational Study, Schizophrenia

Cite this paper: Takahashi, M. , Fujikoshi, S. , Funai, J. , Alev, L. and Iyo, M. (2014) Predictors of Discontinuation of Antipsychotic Therapy in Patients with Acute Schizophrenia: A 1-Year Observational Study with More Than 1000 Patients. Open Journal of Psychiatry, 4, 364-371. doi: 10.4236/ojpsych.2014.44042.

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