Which factors affect treatment response in late paraphrenia?

AbstractSixty‐four patients with late paraphrenia who had been prescribed neuroleptic treatment for at least three months in the previous year were clinically reviewed in order to asses their treatment response. At the time of assessment, 42.2% of the patients showed no response, 31.3% a partial response and 26.6% a full response to treatment. Compliance with medication, receiving depot rather than oral medication, and use of a community psychiatric nurse if the patient was an outpatient all had a positive effect on treatment response. Despite their better treatment response rate, patients prescribed depot medication received on average a lower daily dose in chlorpromazine equivalents than those prescribed oral medication. Improved compliance, greater clinical efficacy and a reduction in the dose of neuroleptic medication administered are all good reasons to commence treatment of late paraphrenia with a depot antipsychotic medication.