Intermittent vs Maintenance Medication in Schizophrenia: Two-Year Results

doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1991.01810280049007

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Vol. 48 No. 4, April 1991

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Intermittent vs Maintenance Medication in Schizophrenia

Two-Year Results

Marvin I. Herz, MD; William M. Glazer, MD; Marcelle A. Mostert, MD; Michael A. Sheard, MD; Herman V. Szymanski, MD; Hisham Hafez, MD; Mahmud Mirza, MD; Josef Vana, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1991;48(4):333-339.

Abstract

• This is a 2-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled studyof 101 patients, evaluating the relative efficacy of intermittentmedication (given only when the patient shows early signs ofrelapse) compared with moderate doses of maintenance medicationfor stable schizophrenic outpatients. Patients were droppedfrom the study if they had three prodromal episodes in 1 yearor if an episode lasted more than 9 weeks. Fourteen percentof patients given maintenance treatment were dropped from thestudy compared with 46% of intermittently treated patients.Relapse rates were 16% for patients given maintenance treatmentand 30% for intermittently treated patients, a nonsignificantdifference. Intermittently treated patients were receiving significantlyless medication, but there were no differences found in drugside effects. There appears to be no advantage in using theintermittent approach, but we found that the use of an earlyintervention strategy reduced the relapse and rehospitalizationrates for these patients.

Author Affiliations

From the Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Buffalo, (Drs Herz, Mostert, Szymanski, Mirza, and Vana); the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, Conn (Drs Glazer and Sheard); and Nashua (NH) Brookside Hospital (Dr Hafez).

Footnotes

Accepted for publication May 31, 1990.

Dr Herz is now with the University of Rochester (NY) MedicalCenter.

Reprint requests to Department of Psychiatry, University ofRochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Blvd, Rochester, NY14642 (Dr Herz).

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