The value of antipsychotic medication in preventing relapse in schizophrenia has been apparent since soon after its introduction (National Institute of Mental Health, Psychopharmacology Service Centre Study Group, 1964) but non-compliance remains a problem. Failure to take prescribed medication is a challenge in general medicine but presents special difficulties when treating mental illness; residual symptoms of psychosis and impaired insight after discharge increase the likelihood that a patient will stop taking antipsychotic medication, thereby contributing to higher relapse rates. The development of depot antipsychotic medication that could be administered intramuscularly at intervals of several weeks raised treatment and outcome expectations for patients who were felt to be at higher risk of non-compliance when in the community. The need for regular administration and monitoring of patients receiving depot medication led to depot and maintenance medication clinics. Today, with increasing numbers of patients who would previously have been receiving depot medication now taking atypical oral antipsychotics, is there still a need for the depot clinic?