Efficacy and Clinical Determinants of Antipsychotic Polypharmacy in Psychotic Patients Experiencing an Acute Relapse and Admitted to Hospital Stay: Results from a Cross-Sectional and a Subsequent Longitudinal Pilot Study

Table 1

Patients’ demographics and clinical variables in the cross-sectional study.

	AP + AP	AP	𝑃	Effect size	df
Age (years)	46.3 ± 11.5	51.2 ± 14.1*	0.048	𝑡: 1.99	143
Gender m/f	18/23	54/50	0.76		1
Age at onset (years)	21.6 ± 7.5	33.5 ± 14.5*	0.0001	𝑡: 4.14	114
Duration of disease (years)	22.8 ± 8.2*	18.1 ± 11.6	0.046	𝑡: 2.02	117
Diagnosis 𝑛 (%)
(i) Schizophrenia	25 (63.4%)*	23 (22.3%)	0.00003	𝑥: 23.44	3
(ii) Schizoaffective	6 (5.8%)	2 (5%)
(iii) Bipolar disorder type I	7 (18%)	29 (29%)
(iv) Bipolar disorder NOS	5 (12.8%)	45 (43.7%)*
Comorbid diagnosis (𝑛):
(i) Mental retardation	5 (31.2%)*	3 (4.3%)	0.0013	𝑥: 13.18	3
(ii) Cognitive impairment	0 (0%)	13 (18.8%)
(iii) Alcoholism	10 (62.5%)	35 (50.7%)
(iv) Personality disorder	1 (6.2%)	18 (26.1%)
Psychotropic drugs 𝑛 (%)
(i) First generation antipsychotics	46 (35.1%)*	4 (1.8%)	<0.00001	𝑥: 83.63	5
(ii) Second generation antipsychotics	43 (32.8%)	81 (37.8%)
(iii) Mood stabilizers	26 (19.8%)	85 (39.7%)*
(iv) Antidepressants	13 (9.9%)	16 (7.5%)
(v) Benzodiazepines	3 (2.3%)	28 (13.1%)*
(vi) Anticholinergics	3 (2.3%)	2 (0.9%)
Antipsychotic doses (in mg/day chlorpromazine equivalents)	954.46 ± 405.71*	328.72 ± 180.12	<0.00001	𝑡: 11.96	143

In this table we summarized data on (i) demographics in patients receiving antipsychotics polytherapy (AP + AP) compared to patients receiving one antipsychotic only (AP); (ii) rates and distribution of psychiatric and organic comorbid diagnoses in AP + AP versus AP patients; (iii) rates and distribution of antipsychotic and non-antipsychotic psychotropic agents in AP + AP versus AP patients; (iv) antipsychotic doses (in mean mg/day chlorpromazine equivalents) in AP + AP versus AP patients. Demographic and pharmacological variables were compared by Student’s 𝑡 test. Diagnosis and antipsychotic distribution were compared by chi-square test. Significant values have been marked in bold and with an asterisk and given with effect size (𝑡, 𝑥). The bold italic items refer to the category where significant differences between groups have been found. df: degrees of freedom.