which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Antipsychotic Prescribing Patterns in First-episode Schizophrenia: A Five-year Comparison

Objective: Early treatment choice is critical in first-episode schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The purpose of this study was to describe prescribing trends of antipsychotics use in patients with first-episode schizophrenia in 2005 and 2010, respectively. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of newly treated patients with schizophrenia from a university psychiatric hospital in 2005 (n=47) and 2010 (n=52). We defined patients as receiving a high antipsychotic dose if their ratio of prescribed daily dose (PDD) to defined daily dose (DDD) was greater than 1.5. Results: The rates of high-dose antipsychotic prescription were 61.7 % and 53.8 % in 2005 and 2010, respectively. The rates of antipsychotic polypharmacy were 34.6 % in 2005 and 34.0 % in 2010. The most common first-prescribed antipsychotics were (in descending order of prescription frequency) olanzapine, risperidone, aripiprazole, and haloperidol in 2005 and risperidone, quetiapine, paliperidone, and olanzapine in 2010. High-dose antipsychotics were significantly associated with antipsychotic poly-pharmacy (odds ratio=23.97; p＜0.01). More individuals were treated with mood stabilizers in 2010 than in 2005 (p=0.003)