Understanding the Risk of Treatment Failure After Discontinuation of Long-Term Antipsychotic Treatment
2018
Abstract
To the Editor: Tiihonen et al. (1) should be commended for their follow-up investigation, published in the August 2018 issue of the Journal, of discontinuation of antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia, using a nationwide cohort and a state-of the-art sampling design. We think that some clarifications are warranted to interpret the statement that the "risk of treatment failure increases with duration of antipsychotic treatment before discontinuation" and the conclusion that long-term antipsychotic exposure "makes discontinuation more difficult when exposure has been longer."