Predictors of Functional Remission in Discharged Patients With Schizophrenia After Long-term Drug Discontinuation

Predictors of Functional Remission in Discharged Patients With Schizophrenia After Long-term Drug Discontinuation: a Case-control Study

Study objectives:

1. Describe the characteristics of discharged patients with schizophrenia achieving functional remission after drug discontinuation.
2. Establish a prediction model of patients with schizophrenia having good prognosis after drug discontinuation.

There are 2 clinically important and urgent questions to be explored in this study: 1. Who is more likely to benefit from guided drug reduction or discontinuation? How to design an individualized treatment plan which can balance the risk of relapse and side-effects from antipsychotics? 2. What are the predictors of functional remission in patients with schizophrenia after drug discontinuation? This will be the first related study to be conducted in China.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients who met the diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10) for a diagnosis of schizophrenia;
• Aged between 18 to 65 years old at time of investigation;
• Hospitalized in Shanghai Mental Health Center any time from the year 2013 to 2018;
• Informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with neurological diseases, severe somatic diseases, psychoactive substance abuse, mental retardation, agitation, stupor, or risk of suicide, and female patients who are pregnant or breast-feeding, will be excluded from the study.