Clinical and therapeutic characterization of a Portuguese sample of patients with schizophrenia.

Introduction: The development of Mental Health policies for psychiatric disorders should be driven by a correct knowledge of the socio-demographic, clinical and therapeutic realities of the disease. There is paucity of detailed studies in the Portuguese population that does not allow a direct comparation with other European countries. The objective of the present study is to characterize the sociodemograhic and clinical characteristics of schizophrenia patients in Portugal and the therapeutic patterns.
Methods: This multicentric, cross sectional, non interventional study was designed to describe the demographic and clinical data of patients with schizophrenia (n=474), and also the demographic and professional characteristics of their treating psychiatrists.
Results: The most frequent diagnosis found was paranoid schizophrenia (54%), with comorbid psychiatric conditions in 39,7% and somatic diseases in 28.4% of the patients. About half the patients were on second generation antipsychotics (SGS) as principal therapy, although haloperidol has been the most frequent drug prescribed as so (35.9 %). 59.51 % of the patients were on antipsychotic monotherapy, and 45% on a depot formulation. Antipsychotic dose vary widely, and they are quite often prescribed on off label doses.
Discussion: Our sample is similar to others found in naturalistic studies, however slightly different from clinical trials. In general, patients with schizophrenia tend to be treated with SGA, although have a higher chance to be on a long-term formulation and to be on polytherapy than in other studies. Somatic diseases are maybe under diagnosed and are undertreated.