Long-acting injectable risperidone and hospital readmission: a mirror-image study using a national claim-based database in Taiwan.

Sir: Poor compliance with antipsychotic medication, which would potentially lead to disease relapse, has been challenging for psychiatrists when treating schizophrenia. Long-acting injection of antipsychotics is an appropriate alternative, since better compliance improves treatment outcomes. Mirror-image studies, in which each patient acts as his/her own control, of long-acting injection of conventional antipsychotics have shown significant decreases in numbers of hospitalizations and days of hospitalization. The development of atypical antipsychotics has provided a new treatment paradigm based on their superior tolerability, if not efficacy. Risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) is the first licensed long-acting injectable atypical antipsychotic agent and has recently been reported cost-effective by reducing total admission number and inpatient days in a communitybased inpatient setting. To our knowledge, a national claimbased database has never been used in any mirror-image study for RLAI.