Background and Importance Aripiprazole intramuscular depot treatment is used for maintenance of schizophrenia in adult patients stabilised with oral aripiprazole. This drug can be started with single or double injection (400 or 800 mg). Real clinical data of these two regimens could be required to optimise treatments.

Aim and Objectives To describe efficacy and safety of two different doses for starting aripiprazole depot therapy.

Material and Methods Retrospective descriptive study with period between March 2019 and July 2021. Hospitalised patients who started treatment with aripiprazole depot were included. Outcomes were collected from medical records and electronic prescription programme: gender, age, diagnosis, start doses, oral aripiprazole concomitant treatment, concomitant antipsychotic therapy. Effectiveness endpoint was percentage of patients with requirement of hospitalisation for single and double injection groups with aripiprazole intramuscular depot treatment at 12 and 26 weeks. Safety was evaluated by the rate of adverse effects (AEs) and types in each scheme.

Results There were 77 patients (67.5% male and 32.5% female). Population presented a mean age of 40 (22-74) years. Distribution of diagnoses: 61% psychotic disorder, 23.4% paranoid schizophrenia, 13% bipolar disorder and 2.6% others. Single injection was used in 61% of patients and double injection in 39%. Population with single dose presented 58.6% of patients with concomitant oral aripiprazole and 78.2% with different concomitant antipsychotics. Patients with double dose had 73.3% of cases with concomitant oral aripiprazole and 76.6% with different concomitant antipsychotics. About effectiveness results at week 12, 29.8% of cases in single dose group required hospitalisation versus 20% of population in double dose group. At week 26, 42% of patients required hospitalisation in single dose group versus 26.7% in double dose group. In terms of safety, 27 cases refer adverse effects: 36% in single dose group and 32% with double dose. Most common AEs of single dose population: sedation (25%), anxiety (18.8%), somnolence (18.8%) akathisia (12.5%) and others (24.9%). Most frequent AEs in double dose population: akathisia (33%) , anxiety (22%), sedation (11%), somnolence (11%) and others (23%).

Conclusion and Relevance Start with double dose aripiprazole depot treatment showed lower percentages of re-hospitalisation than single-dose regimen for maintenance treatment of patients with schizophrenia. Similar AEs were observed for both regimens.

Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest