Clinical outcomes following switching antipsychotic treatment due to market withdrawal: a retrospective naturalistic cohort study of pipotiazine palmitate injection (Piportil Depot) discontinuation, subsequent acute care use and effectiveness of medication to which patients switched.

Introduction: Pipotiazine palmitate depot injection (Piportil) was withdrawn from the UK marketplace in 2015. Few studies exist on the clinical impact of such market withdrawal. We aimed to identify a cohort of patients switching from pipotiazine following this withdrawal and explore factors associated with effectiveness of the medication switched to and subsequent acute service use.

Presynaptic dopaminergic dysfunction in schizophrenia: a positron emission tomographic [18F]fluorodopa study.

Context: The dopamine overactivity hypothesis of schizophrenia remains one of the most influential theories of the pathophysiology of the illness. Radiotracer brain imaging studies are now directly testing aspects of the overactivity hypothesis.

Objective: To assess presynaptic dopaminergic function in a large cohort of patients with schizophrenia by means of [18F]fluorodopa uptake and a high-sensitivity 3-dimensional positron emission tomograph.