A Study of Risperidone Long-Acting Injection Versus Oral Antipsychotics in Schizophrenia Participants With a History of Being Poorly Compliant With Taking Their Medication

Clinical exacerbation is defined as hospitalization because of participant's schizophrenia or requiring change from current antipsychotic or initiation of an adjunctive antipsychotic, 2-point worsening in CGI-S or emergency room visit, deliberate self-injury, emergence of clinically significant suicidal ideation, utilization of treatment team services, violent behavior, requiring an increase in dose of existing antipsychotic as a result of poor symptom control.

Time to first clinical exacerbation was calculated over the entire trial duration wherein clinical exacerbation is defined as hospitalization because of participant's schizophrenia or requiring change from current antipsychotic or initiation of an adjunctive antipsychotic, 2-point worsening in CGI-S or emergency room visit, deliberate self-injury, emergence of clinically significant suicidal ideation, utilization of treatment team services, violent behavior, requiring an increase in dose of existing antipsychotic as a result of poor symptom control.

Time in symptomatic (having symptoms) remission for participants on risperidone was compared with those on oral atypical medication and was calculated over the entire trial duration.

The PANSS is a 30-item scale designed to assess various symptoms of schizophrenia (psychiatric disorder with symptoms of emotional instability, detachment from reality, often with delusions and hallucinations, and withdrawal into the self) including delusions, grandiosity, blunted affect, poor attention, and poor impulse control. The 30 symptoms are rated on a 7-point scale that ranges from 1 (absent) to 7 (extreme psychopathology). The PANSS total score consists of the sum of all 30 PANSS items and ranges from 30 to 210, higher scores indicate worsening.

The CGI-S rating scale is used to rate the severity of a patient's psychotic condition on a 7-point scale. It is rated as follows: 1=Normal, not at all ill, 2=Borderline mentally ill, 3=Mildly ill, 4=Moderately ill, 5=Markedly ill, 6=Severely ill, and 7=Among the most extremely ill. Higher scores indicate worsening.

The CGI-C is a assessment of change in global clinical status, defined as a sense of well-being and ability to function in daily activities. CGI-C scores range from 1 (very much improved) through to 7 (very much worse). Higher scores indicate worsening.

This questionnaire included questions asked to participants about any hospitalizations, visits to the emergency room or any other psychiatric treatment received in the previous month. Also the participants and/or primary health care contact or caregiver (or other modality to obtain accurate information) were telephoned on a monthly basis (1 month post Visit 2 through to end of study [Visit 6, Month 24]) by a member of the investigational staff and the resource utilization assessment was conducted over the phone.

AQoL is defined as an Australian-developed participant delivered quality of life (QoL) instrument consisting of 15-questions in 5 scales measuring illness, independence, social relationships, physical senses and psychological well-being. Each of the 5 scales is calculated based on the answers to 3 questions. Each question is given an answer dependent utility score (0 [worst] to 1 [best] and then these scores are combined using a multiplicative model to get the normalized scale score value, each scale ranging between 0.0 (representing death) and 1.0 (representing full health). The scores for independent living, social relationships, physical senses and psychological well-being are combined to obtain the QoL utility score which refers to the "value" of a health state to the respondent where the lower boundary is -0.04 (representing QoL state worse than death), 0.00 (death equivalent QoL state) and to 1.00 (best possible QoL state)".

The PSP is 100-point validated clinician-rated scale that assesses degree of difficulty in 4 areas of functioning: socially useful activities, personal and social relationships, self-care, disturbing and aggressive behaviors rated on 6-point scale (1=absent to 6=very severe).Total transformed score from 1 to 100 is generated from raw score based on clinical interpretation of scores generated in 4 areas of functioning, with higher transformed score indicating better function. Total score is divided into 3 levels: 71-100 (mild difficulty); 31-70 (marked difficulty) and 1-30 (severe difficulty).