title: The psychopathological characteristics of treatment discontinuation group in 6-month treatment with paliperidone ER.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the demographic and psychopathological characteristics of the treatment discontinuation group compared with patients who completed with paliperidone ER treatment for 6 months.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 984 patients meeting the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia who switched their antipsychotics were recruited from 61 sites in five countries in Southeast Asia. The patients with early discontinuation were then compared with those who completed the 6-month treatment in terms of demographic and psychopathological variables at baseline and also at the end of the evaluation period, which included PANSS score, sleep quality, daytime drowsiness, PSP score, ESRS score and clinical global impression-severity (CGI-S) score. Finally, logistic regression analysis was applied to determine predictive factors that were associated with discontinuation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 984 patients, 284 patients (28.9%) discontinued without completing the 6-month treatment period with paliperidone. Significant differences in patient baseline characteristics for the discontinuation group compared with the completion group were observed for gender, number of previous hospitalisations with psychosis, PANSS total score and all of its subscales, daytime drowsiness score, total ESRS score, CGI-S, PSP and Insight. Patients who completed the study period had significantly better scores in all psychopathology variables compared with the discontinuation group at the end of the evaluation period. Numbers of previous hospitalisations because of psychosis, being exposed with first generation antipsychotics, gender and PANSS total scores were found to be significant predictors of discontinuation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients who discontinued early from a 6-month treatment period with Paliperidone have some characteristic differences compared with completion patients. Many factors including frequent hospitalisations, female gender, high PANSS score (indicating more disease severity) and previous exposure to first generation of antipsychotic agent might lead patients to discontinue from treatment.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychiatry, Department of medicine, Chulalongkorn University, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thavichachart
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kongsakon
authors.forename: W T L
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sobrevega
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Banaag
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bautista
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Evangelista
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dimatalac
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nerapusee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D057915:Drug Substitution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007555:Isoxazoles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D000068882:Paliperidone Palmitate; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011599:Psychopathology; D011743:Pyrimidines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D007555:Isoxazoles; D011743:Pyrimidines; D000068882:Paliperidone Palmitate