Invega Trinza: The First Four-Times-a-Year, Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotic Agent

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness known as one of the most complex and challenging psychiatric disorders to treat. 1 It is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome involving a compilation of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional dysfunctions. 2 The mainstay of treatment for schizophrenia is pharmacotherapy, and in many cases it is impossible to implement effective psychosocial rehabilitation without antipsychotic treatment. 1 However, one of the difficulties in the treatment of schizophrenia is patient nonadherence to medication regimens, with the percentage of nonadherence reported as 40% to 60% to antipsychotics and 11% to 80% in patients with schizophrenia. 3 Many consequences of poor compliance are known, including relapse, hospitalization, exacerbations, behavior harmful to one’s self or others, suicide, and overall negative impacts on patients, their families, and society as a whole. 3 – 4 The most common cause of relapse is poor adherence, with relapse in first-episode patients increasing almost fivefold when antipsychotic drug treatment is discontinued. 4 – 6