Key clinical point: Chronic schizophrenia patients receiving only long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIAs) are at a lower risk of disease relapse and have reduced psychiatric service utilization vs. those receiving only oral antipsychotics (OAPs) during the maintenance treatment.

Major finding: Patients who received only LAIAs vs. those who received only OAPs had a lower percentage of psychiatric hospitalization (5.8% vs. 8.4%; odds ratio, 0.68; P less than .01), shorter lengths of hospitalization days (65.9 vs. 82.8; coefficient [b] = −16.87, P = .03), and fewer emergency room visits (1.8 vs. 2.3; b = −0.25; P less than .01) per patient.

Study details: This Taiwanese population-based cohort study included 40,194 patients with schizophrenia (age range, 15-65 years; LAIAs, n = 948; OAPs, n = 39,246).

Disclosures: This study was funded by the Bali Psychiatric Center, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taiwan. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.