The place of Long Acting Injectables (LAI) in the treatment of Schizophrenia: Current perspectives

Long acting injectables antipsychotics (LAIs) preparations were introduced for the first time in 1960s for management of schizophrenia. Over the years, many LAIs have been introduced. A recent meta-analysis of prospective and retrospective studies evaluating the effectiveness of LAIs vis-à-vis oral antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia have demonstrated superiority of LAIs over oral antipsychotics in reducing rehospitalization rates, illness severity/chronicity, have lower all cause discontinuation rates and improved medication adherence. However, despite all these findings, oral antipsychotics form the bulk of the prescriptions for patients with psychotic disorders. The prescription rates for LAIs by the psychiatrists’ all across the World show wide variation with rates ranging from 6% to 80%. Several factors influence the prescription of LAI’s, including the attitudes of psychiatrists, nursing staff, patients and their relatives, stigmatizing views regarding LAIs, issues related to patient autonomy, fear of side-effects, cost related issues etc. This symposium will deal with the following aspects in greater detail: 1. The current evidence of LAIs in the management of Schizophrenia: Sandeep Grover 2. The patient’s and caregivers’ perspectives about LAIs: Swapnajeet Sahoo 3. The psychiatrists’ perspectives about LAIs: Aseem Mehra 14/09/2021, Kurnool, A.P To Dr Gowtam Saha President Indian Psychiatry Society (IPS) drgautam@ancips2022.com Through Proper Channel Sub: Proposal for a Symposium at ANCIPS, 2022 Respected sir, Greeting on behalf of my Psychiatry friends & Colleagues. I am Dr M Shivashanker Reddy, currently working as Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, Viswabharathi Medical College & Hospital, Kurnool. As world is recovering from pangs of COVID19, we are thrilled to know that there will be 73(rd) ANCIPS being planned in 2022 at Vishakhapatnam, A.P. On this prestigious, National conference, we like to propose a symposium on a burning issue: “Climate Change and its impact of Mental Health.” This is one of the important issue and talking point among the experts and social media. I am sure sir, this symposium will meet the expectations of organizers and participants. The topics under this symposium and speakers are listed as below: Topic 1: Climate Change: Disaster in the pipeline Dr Dinakaran D, MD, PDF, Assistant professor, Centre for Psychosocial Support in Disaster Management, NIMHANS, Bangalore Topic 2: Climate and its Bearing on Mental Health Dr Ravi kumar N, MD, (Ex-NIMHANS) Consultant Psychiatrist, VARMA Super-speciality Hospital, West Godavari (dt), A.P Topic 3: Does Climate Change increase the prevalence of Mental illness Dr Venkata Lakshmi Narasimha, MD, DM (Ex-NIMHANS) Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS, Deoghar, Jharkhand. Topic 4: Climate Change and its impact on Cognition & Cognitive disorders Dr Shivashanker Reddy M, MD, DM (Ex-NIMHANS) Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Viswabharathi Medical College and General Hospital, Kurnool (dt), A.P Topic 5: Mitigation strategies to decrease the impact of climate change on Mental Health Dr Jayakrishnan M, MD, DM (Ex-NIMHANS) Consultant Psychiatrist, IQRAA Hospital, Kozikhode, Kerala Warm Regards & Respects Dr Shivashanker Reddy 91-9739148894 Shivakmc55@gmail.com/brianpsyclinic@gmail.com