Are people on depot injections considered worse SZ/SZA’s to mental health professionals because they can’t be trusted or too ill to take oral meds. Do people on depot have a worse prognosis then people on oral meds? In the UK the way the disability benefits people assess people with psychosis is that if your on depot it’s considered you have a chronic disability and it’s a sign of more usability plus on depot you have indefinite support from mental health services, kinda like the depot is the last resort.
From Science daily in 2007.
Use of depot medication for patients in the identified subgroup may help reduce relapses among these patients, the study suggests. This unique group of patients is more likely to include African-Americans and persons who are less likely to be veterans, have had previous psychiatric hospitalizations, were more likely to have been arrested, use alcohol and illicit substances, and show psychotic symptoms and disorganized thinking.
Studies show that people on depot are less likely to relapse and end up back in hospital.
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There are different reasons why people get depot meds. I’m on Abilify Maintena injections, got my shot today in fact, because they are available free from the drug manufacturer for people with no insurance. I just recently got insurance again, so I may see about taking tablets again. I really prefer oral medication.
I took it because it gives a lot less side effects and I got stable so quickly.
I know some people with SZ who take the depot injections for the convenience and they are quite functional. Wouldn’t be considered the worst of the worst at all.
My pdoc put me on depot injections because the pills made me too constipated. The shots work better on my psychosis as an added benefit anyway.