Clinician differences in attitudes and perceptions on the use of long-acting injectable antipsychotic agents in treating patients with schizophrenia: results from the US DECIDE survey.

Background: Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) reduce relapses in schizophrenia; however, most clinicians reserve LAIs for nonadherence with oral antipsychotics (OAs) or severe disease.

Methods: US psychiatric clinicians were surveyed regarding their schizophrenia management practices and use of LAIs. Respondents were grouped by LAI use (high [≥ 31% of patients using LAIs], low [≤ 14% using LAIs]; mid not analyzed) and mindset based on their response to "Which of the following best fits the current way you view your use of [LAIs] for your patients with schizophrenia?"

Results: Respondents (n = 380) were distributed across LAI use (106 high, 130 low) and mindset (123 early-use, 88 severity-reserved, 113 adherence-reserved, 56 LAI-hesitant) subgroups. Across subgroups, clinicians estimated that OA nonadherence was lower for patients in their practice (21-52%) than for patients nationwide (50-56%). Compared with other subgroups, greater proportions with high LAI use or an early-use mindset were confident in key aspects of LAI treatment like dosing, managing side effects, and access (67-74% high LAI use, 59-70% early-use vs. 11-57% other subgroups; P < .05 each), agreed it was "worth [their] time to resolve issues with the insurance company" (42%, 45% vs. 16-30%; P < .05 each), and were optimistic they would be able to do so (23%, 20% vs. 2-11%; P < .05 each). Clinicians with high LAI use estimated the proportion of patients who initially accept LAIs to be higher (mean, 56%) than clinicians with low LAI use (45%, P < .01); there were no differences among mindsets (49-54%). Clinicians with high LAI use or early-use mindset were more likely to "use any means necessary to ensure that a patient is on an LAI" than clinicians in other subgroups (44% high LAI use, 51% early-use vs. 5-22% other subgroups; P < .01 each) or had used guardianship to assist with treatment (70%, 69% vs. 32-56%; P < .05 each).

Conclusions: These results indicate that multiple factors (e.g., environmental/demographic factors, access, attitudes, motivation, knowledge/confidence) combine to influence LAI use, and highlight the need to tailor educational materials aimed at improving patient outcomes through increased LAI use.