Suicide Prevention in Schizophrenia: Do Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics (LAIs) have a Role?

Title:Suicide Prevention in Schizophrenia: Do Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics (LAIs) have a Role?

Volume: 16 Issue: 4

Author(s): Maurizio Pompili*, Laura Orsolini, Dorian A. Lamis, David R. Goldsmith, Adele Nardella, Giulia Falcone, Valentina Corigliano, Mario Luciano and Andrea Fiorillo

Affiliation:

• Department of Psychiatry, Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Via di Grottarossa 1035, 00189 Rome,Italy

Keywords: Long-acting injectable antipsychotics, prevention, schizophrenia, suicide, pharmacological, hallucination.

Abstract: Suicide risk is a major cause of death among patients with schizophrenia. Death by suicide has been reported in approximately 5% of schizophrenia patients although this figure appears to be an underestimate of the problem. A number of risk factors are routinely reported as associated with suicide risk among these patients, some of which are modifiable by targeted therapeutic strategies. Clozapine is the only compound that gathered evidence as an effective treatment for reducing suicide risk in schizophrenia. Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics (LAIs) have a range of advantages in terms of efficacy, safety and tolerability in the treatment of schizophrenia, and one area of interest is whether LAI-treatment may decrease suicidality by indirectly acting on a range of risk factors for suicide specific to schizophrenia patients. This background encouraged the present review of research pertaining to LAIs in relation to modifiable risk factors for suicide in schizophrenia. We viewed our task as gathering, speculating and critically appraising the available research relevant to the topic, with the aim of formulating a hypothesis to be tested with further research.

Cite this article as:

Pompili Maurizio*, Orsolini Laura, Lamis A. Dorian, Goldsmith R. David, Nardella Adele, Falcone Giulia, Corigliano Valentina, Luciano Mario and Fiorillo Andrea, Suicide Prevention in Schizophrenia: Do Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics (LAIs) have a Role?, CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets 2017; 16 (4) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1871527316666170223163629