Switching antipsychotics is a therapeutic alternative for managing side-effects, or efficacy and compliance issues.

To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of switching to LAI-aripiprazole in patients who had insufficient response or were intolerant to the previous antipsychotic, or required a more convenient treatment regimen.

This was a prospective, observational, 6-months study carried out in 45 outpatients with schizophrenia who were clinically stabilized but a switching to another antipsychotic was clinically indicated. Patients who required hospitalization, treatment discontinuation or adding another antipsychotic (including supplementation with oral-aripiprazole) were considered treatment failures. Switching was considered successful if the side-effect/symptom/adherence/convenience improved or, if applicable, disappeared.

Patients aged 38 years, 51% women, and previous antipsychotics comprised: LAI-paliperidone (42%), oral-aripiprazole (22%), oral-olanzapine (11%), oral-risperidone (7%), LAI-risperidone (4%) and others (14%). The efficacy results of the switching are presented in the table. Of the 45 patients, 7 (15%) were considered treatment failures: 3 patients were hospitalized due to recurrence of psychotic symptoms, 2 discontinued LAI-aripiprazole, and 2 required supplementation with oral-aripiprazole (Fig 1).

Our results suggest that switching to LAI-aripiprazole is an efficacious strategy for managing some antipsychotic-induced side-effects, persistence of negative symptoms and/or lack of treatment adherence.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.