Prevención de recaídas en primeros episodios psicóticosanálisis comparativo de efectividad psicofarmacológica

Abstract

Schizophrenia represents a first-rate problem in terms of social and health burden. It is compulsory to persevere in the acquisition of new research which let clinicians to diminish its global impact in the future. The development of appropriate psychopharmacological, psychological, and psychosocial approaches may provide patients and caregivers with instruments to optimize the outcome of this disease. A poor outcome is usually determined by the presence of an increasing number of relapses. Furthermore, relapse rates are amongst the most reliable predictors for a poor outcome in schizophrenia. In consequence, it is necessary to prevent relapses and reduce the duration of active psychosis to modify a deteriorating course of the illness. A higher rate of treatment discontinuation during early phases of psychosis is acknowledged as the main predictor for relapse. Thus, preventing treatment discontinuation has been appointed as a critical target which can impact on modifying the course of the disease. This work aims to assess the effectiveness (we measured all-cause discontinuation rates and mean time to discontinuation; two proxy measures for effectiveness) of different antipsychotic treatments during a three-year follow-up period. We aim to identify which treatment fits better with the ultimate goal of achieving an improvement in terms of global outcome in schizophrenia.