Attitudes of European physicians towards the use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics

BMC Psychiatry

Stephan Heres¹  Maxine X. Patel²  Anna-Greta Nylander³  Sylvie di Nicola⁴  Christophe Sapin⁵  Nawal Bent-Ennakhil⁵  Jean-Yves Loze⁶ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Munich Technical University;Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London;H. Lundbeck A/S;Inferential;Lundbeck SAS;Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd;

关键词: Antipsychotic agents;    Physicians;    Attitude;    Cross-sectional studies;    Long-acting injectables;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-020-02530-2

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Prescription rates for long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic formulations remain relatively low in Europe despite improved adherence over alternative oral antipsychotic treatments. This apparent under-prescription of LAI antipsychotics may have multiple contributing factors, including negative mental health practitioner attitudes towards the use of LAIs. Methods The Antipsychotic Long acTing injection in schizOphrenia (ALTO) non-interventional study (NIS), conducted across several European countries, utilised a questionnaire that was specifically designed to address physicians’ attitudes and beliefs towards the treatment of schizophrenia with LAI antipsychotics. Exploratory principal component analysis (PCA) of feedback from the questionnaire aimed to identify and characterize the factors that best explained the physicians’ attitudes towards prescription of LAIs. Results Overall, 136/234 solicited physicians returned fully completed questionnaires. Physicians’ mean age was 48.5 years, with mean psychiatric experience of 20.0 years; 69.9% were male, 84.6% held a consultant position, and 91.9% had a clinical specialty in general adult care. Most physicians considered themselves to have a high level of clinical experience with LAI antipsychotics (77.2%), with an increased rate of LAI antipsychotics prescription over the last 5 years (59.6%). Although the majority of physicians (69.9%) declared feeling no difference in stress levels when offering LAI compared to oral antipsychotics, feelings of ‘no/more stress’ versus ‘less stress’ was found to influence prescription patterns. PCA identified six factors which collectively explained 66.1% of the variance in physician feedback. Multivariate analysis identified a positive correlation between physicians willing to accept usage of LAI antipsychotics and the positive attitude of colleagues (co-efficient 3.67; p = 0.016). Conclusions The physician questionnaire in the ALTO study is the first to evaluate the attitudes around LAI antipsychotics across several European countries, on a larger scale. Findings from this study offer an important insight into how physician attitudes can influence the acceptance and usage of LAI antipsychotics to treat patients with schizophrenia.

【 授权许可】

Unknown