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William Glazer, MD
Yale University School of Medicine Stony Creek, Conn

JAMA. 1994;272(22):1722.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Direct treatment costs of schizophrenia in the United States total more than $10 billion per year.¹ Approximately 50% of patients with chronic schizophrenia receiving outpatient treatment relapse within 1 year after discharge as a result of medication noncompliance.² As a result, medication noncompliance accounts for approximately 33% of the cost of relapse and rehospitalization of patients with chronic schizophrenia.² Long-acting depot neuroleptics have been shown to enhance medication compliance and thereby reduce the risk of relapse and, consequently, hospital days.³ In the United Kingdom, 50% of patients with schizophrenia receive treatment with long-acting, injectable depot neuroleptic therapy, while in this country only 10% to 20% receive depot therapy.⁴ If US psychiatrists began to use depot neuroleptics as widely as their European colleagues, millions of dollars in relapse- and rehospitalization-related costs could be saved each year.²

Another reason that depot neuroleptics are . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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