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Andrea de Bartolomeis,1 Andrea Fagiolini,2 Marco Vaggi,3 Claudio Vampini4 1Section of Psychiatry and Treatment Resistant Psychosis, Department of Neuroscience, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy; 2Department of Molecular and Developmental Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Siena, Siena, Italy; 3Mental Health and Drug Addiction Department, Genovese, Genoa, Italy; 4Department of Mental Health, Ospedale Civile Maggiore and ULSS 20, Verona, Italy Purpose: This survey of Italian psychiatrists was conducted to better define drivers of schizophrenia treatment choice in real-life practice, particularly for use of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics.Methods: Between October 15 and December 15, 2014, 1,000 surveys were sent to psychiatrists who treat schizophrenic patients; 709 completed questionnaires were analyzed (71% response rate).Results: The two most important factors determining therapy success were efficacy (75% of responses) and tolerability (45%) followed by global functioning (24%) and quality of life (17%). LAI antipsychotics were most often used to facilitate regular treatment monitoring (49%), and 41% of psychiatrists thought that patients with low adherence who had failed oral therapy were well-suited for LAI antipsychotics. Only 4% of respondents saw LAI antipsychotics as appropriate for patients without other therapeutic options.Conclusion: Although efficacy and tolerability were the most common factors used to evaluate treatment success in schizophrenia, psychiatrists also consider QoL and global functioning to be important. Keywords: quality of life, long-acting injectable antipsychotics, schizophrenia, survey

Michele Fornaro1, Icro Maremmani2,3, Pier Luigi Canonico4, Paolo Carbonatto5, Claudio Mencacci6, Giovanni Muscettola7, Luca Pani8, Riccardo Torta9, Claudio Vampini10, Fabio Parazzini11, Arina Dumitriu12, Giulio Perugi2,31Department of Neurosciences, Section of Psychiatry, University of Genova, Genoa, Italy; 2Dipartimento di Psichiatria Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy; 3Institute of Behavioural Sciences "G. De Lisio", Pisa, Italy; 4Università di Novara, Novara, Italy; 5Societa' Italiana di Medicina Generale (SIMG) Turin, Italy; 6Ospedale Fatebenefratelli, Milan, Italy; 7Università di Napoli, Naples, Italy; 8Istituto di Neurogenetica e Neurofarmacologia, CNR, Cagliari, Italy; 9Ospedale Molinette, Turin, Italy; 10Ospedale Maggiore, Verona, Italy; 11GPA net, Milan, Italy; 12Boehringer Ingelheim S.p.A., Milan, ItalyObjective: To assess the prevalence and distribution of medically unexplained painful somatic symptoms (PSSs) versus nonpainful somatic symptoms (NPSSs) in patients diagnosed with major depressive episode (MDE).Method: A total of 571 outpatients diagnosed with MDE according to DSM-IV-TR criteria were consecutively enrolled into a cross-sectional, multicentric, observational study over a period of 7 months. Subjects were evaluated by means of the ad hoc validated 30-item Somatic Symptoms Checklist (SSCL-30) and Zung's questionnaires for depression and anxiety. The 32-item Hypomania Checklist (HCL-32) was also administered in order to explore any eventual association of PSSs or NPSSs with sub-threshold (DSM-IV-TR [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision] not recognized) bipolar disorder (BD).Results: In our sample, just 183 patients (32%) did not report painful somatic symptoms (NPSSs). Of these, 90 patients (15.76%) had no somatic symptoms at all. The remaining 388 (68%) had at least one PSS being subdivided as follows: 248 (43%) had one or two PSSs