Oral versus depot medication in schizophrenia.

Abstract

More recent experience and research may well have modified the original claims and expectations of the advantages of depot injections over oral medication, and these observations are almost certainly valid. However, for long-term maintenance therapy there remain certain clear advantages which have been outlined, and in the circumstances of normal clinical practice, with all its variations, these advantages would seem to be overwhelming. In the absence of any specific disadvantages, it is fair to conclude that even if the two methods of administration lead to no pharmacological differences, clinically, depot injections remain the better treatment in long-term maintenance therapy. It represents an organised management of the patient, his illness and his treatment far beyond the simple administration of a drug.