Effectiveness of Antipsychotic Use for Reducing Risk of Work Disability: Results From a Swedish National Cohort of 21,551 Patients With First-Episode Nonaffective Psychosis

By: Marco Solmi, Heidi Taipale, Minna Holm, Antti Tanskanen, Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz, Christoph U. Correll, and Jari Tiihonen

While some studies have shown that the long-term use of anti-psychotic medications lowers the risk of relapse for patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. However, other work has questioned the being on these medications long-term might worse people’s overall functioning. In this study, we explored whether the use of anti-psychotic medication is associated with lower work disability in patients experiencing their first episode of non-affective psychosis and for how long. We compared this to patients’ outcome when they were not taking anti-psychotic medications.

We included 21, 551 participants from a nationwide Swedish cohort study who were experiencing their first episode of non-affective psychosis and found that 45.9% of these patients had experienced a prolonged absence from work during the study’s follow-up period. The risk of this work disability was 35%-50% lower when patients were taking anti-psychotic medications compared to when they weren’t.

While these results offer support for the long-term use of anti-psychotic medications, more studies are needed to replicate these findings.

For more information about this study, visit: https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.21121189.