Aripiprazole once monthly (AOM) is one of the most recently introduced antipsychotics with a different mechanism of action, which seems to bring clinical and tolerability implications [1Kane J., Peters-Strickland T., Ross A., et al. Aripiprazole once-monthly in the acute treatment of schizophrenia: findings from a 12-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study J Clin Psychiatry 2014 ;  75 (11) : 1254-1260 [cross-ref]

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We describe the patient profile that may benefit from AOM treatment.

This is a single-centre, retrospective, one year follow-up study of 13 cases of ambulatory AOM use. We analyze clinical and functional evolution, and the tolerability profile of patients in a real clinical practice basis.

Mean age was 53.69; 53.8% were males and 46.2% females. The most frequent diagnosis was Schizophrenia and other chronic psychosis (69.3%). Only 7.7% had co-morbidity with substance use disorder (cocaine); 61.6% were on previous treatment with other injectable anti-psychotics; 84,6% of the sample received AOM as monotherapy. Reasons for switching to AOM are shown on Fig. 1. Events during switching are shown on Fig. 2. Outcomes with AOM long-term treatment were positive in 84.61% of cases and are shown on Fig. 3.

Switching to AOM could be considered as a good strategy to improve tolerability, functionality and ultimately adherence to treatment in patients in middle age of life with a chronic psychotic disorder [2Fagiolini A., Brugnoli R., Di Sciascio G., et al. Switching antipsychotic medication to aripiprazole: position paper by a panel of Italian psychiatrists Expert Opin Pharmacother 2015 ;  16 (5) : 727-737 [cross-ref]

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