First-Episode Schizophrenia

Copyright © 2012 Eduard Parellada et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIAs) may improve adherence to treatment and reduce the rate of relapse and rehospitalization in first-episode or recent-onset schizophre-nia (e.g., less than 2 years of illness duration). However, despite their potential advantages, LAIAs are underutilised in clinical practice and the place of LAIAs in the early phases of schizophrenia is still a controversial clinical issue. For example, negative attitudes toward LAIAs in first-episode schizophrenia among psychiatrists are common, and the place of LAIAs for first-episode psychoses (FEPs) remains uncertain in the current clinical guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia. Moreover,