The data indicate that after the acute phase certain
specific subgroups of patients with schizophrenia have an
increased probability of going off antipsychotics for prolonged periods and opting out of the mental health caregiving system and indicate the characteristics of this particular subgroup are. Posthospital treatment is important for
most patients with schizophrenia. The controlled trials data
on clinic populations of patients suggest that among the
patients with schizophrenia who stay in clinic treatment
settings for years after the acute phase there is increased risk
of relapse when going off antipsychotics. However, the current data suggest that for the select subgroup of patients with
schizophrenia who are not in clinic settings, who have gone
off antipsychotics and did not immediately relapse, and
stayed off them for a period of time, a surprising number
experienced periods of recovery and continued to function
well for a considerable period without antipsychotics.
Clearly, the present longitudinal data suggest that not all
patients with schizophrenia need to use antipsychotic medications continuously throughout their lives.
It is not known how the off-medication schizophrenia
patients experiencing periods of recovery, and those experiencing difficulties in functioning, would have been functioning had they been receiving medications, and from the
present study one is not able to make definitive causal
inferences about the treatment factors affecting outcome.
However, knowledge by clinical workers of which factors are
associated with greater chances of success can be helpful in
treatment decisions for patients with schizophrenia who express an interest in going off antipsychotics