There are relatively few studies of Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI), although poor adherence to treatment is one of the main problems in patients with psychotic disorders.

The aim of the study is to describe socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of a sample of outpatients with LAI treatment.

This is a cross-sectional study. A randomized sampling was performed among the outpatients that were receiving LAI in an outpatient clinic in Barcelona (Spain). For each patient, socio-demographic, clinical and pharmacotherapeutic data were collected through interviews and clinical history.

The sample consisted of 30 subjects (50% men, average age 48 years). Most of the patients in the sample have basic education (50%) and are unemployed, receiving permanent disability pension (39.3%). In addition, 44.8% of the subjects were living with family members and were not married (56.7%). Of the patients, 70% were diagnosed with schizophrenia, 13.3% schizoaffective, 10% bipolar and 6.7% delusional disorder. The main reason to initiate LAI treatment was due to non-compliance of the prescribed oral treatment (85.7%). The 40% of patients were also with oral antipsychotic treatment. Average punctuation in the 3 first items of the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder: 11. Average punctuation in the short version of the Simpson-Angus Scale: 1.68.

In our sample, the outpatients with LAI treatment had a low functioning and disease awareness. Although the main reason to start LAI is the non-compliance, 40% of the patients were concurrently treated with oral antipsychotics. The extrapyramidal side effects are mild.