Introduction: Our aim was to evaluate treatment safety, tolerability, efficacy and compliance of long-acting injectable risperidone (LAIR) as maintenance treatment in a bipolar and schizoaffective inpatients sample with torpid course due to poor compliance to oral therapy.
Methods: 22 inpatients, 14 with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and 8 with a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, were included in this study. They were treated with LAIR, 1 dose every 14 days, and were evaluated for 40 weeks with the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Scale for Depression (HAM-D), UKU-Side Effect Rating Scale and Clinical Global Impression Severity of Illness scales (CGI).
Results: Average YMRS scores were reduced significantly from 10.5 at baseline interview to 2.5 at week 40 (p < 0.001). HAM-D and UKU scales did not reach a statistically significant reduction. CGI-S scores were reduced from 3.8 at baseline to 1.5 at week 40 (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: LAIR could be an effective maintenance therapy for bipolar and schizoaffective patients with poor compliance to oral treatment.