Two researchers from the Santa Lucía Hospital in Cartagena participated in the first clinical study that confirms the effectiveness of paliperidone in the treatment of schizophrenia with a formulation that has an effect for six months and only requires injection twice a year. It is a drug with wide clinical use as a second-generation antipsychotic and highly effective in the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychiatric diseases with psychotic symptoms.
Until now, only the data from the clinical trial was available prior to its authorization, and now, thanks to a recent study carried out by a group of researchers from Spain and the United Kingdom, the real clinical effectiveness of the medication is demonstrated. To do this, they had a sample of 200 patients treated in 20 healthcare centers in both countries.
Juan Antonio García-Carmona, neurologist at the Santa Lucía hospital in Cartagena, researcher in the Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology Group of the Murcian Institute for Biosanitary Research (IMIB), and Pilar Campos Navarro, psychiatrist at the aforementioned hospital center, participated in this study that concludes that 43% of patients indicated their preference for a treatment with fewer administrations as the main reason for switching to semiannual paliperidone.
Treatment adherence in the second administration was 94 percent at six months, a figure much higher than other injectable treatments for schizophrenia.
This disease is characterized by inappropriate and/or intrusive distortions of thought and perception and affect without affecting consciousness or intellectual abilities.
According to data published by the Ministry of Health, schizophrenia, in any of its forms, is more common in men (4.5 per thousand) than in women (2.9 per thousand), although it depends on age, since The frequency doubles between the ages of 20 and 49 and levels out after the age of 65, at which time a slight increase appears in women.
Final results in 2025
The study, which was published last December in the international journal 'Therapeutics Advances in Pharmacology', is currently in development and the final results, which will be published in 2025, will include references to quality of life variables, self-perception patients and metabolic analysis.
This is an innovative work carried out by psychiatrists and teams from the Santa Lucía hospital in Cartagena, the Los Arcos hospital, the mental health centers of Lorca, Murcia and Molina de Segura, the Jiménez Díaz Foundation in Madrid, the Health Research Institute Valdecilla (IDIVAL) in Santander, the Alcanys hospital in Xátiva, the Infanta Elena hospital in Madrid or the San Cecilio hospital in Granada, as well as teams from the Imperial College of London (United Kingdom).
#researchers #Santa #Lucía #Cartagena #create #drug #controls #schizophrenia #injections #year
