Key clinical point: Long-term treatment with long-acting injectables, both paliperidone palmitate 1-month (PP1M) or 3-month (PP3M) may improve negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.

Major finding: Treatment with PP3M or PP1M showed significant improvement in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) negative subscale and symptom factor scores (P less than .0001). Mean (standard deviation) changes in PANSS negative subscale score were comparable between the treatment groups (PP1M: –1.4 [3.67] vs PP3M: –1.4 [3.63]).

Study details: Post hoc analysis of data on 1,016 patients with schizophrenia from a phase 3, noninferiority study. Patients were randomly assigned to receive PP3M (n = 504) or PP1M (n = 512).

Disclosure: The study was funded by Janssen Research & Development, LLC. Four of the authors are employees of Janssen Research and Development, USA. One is an employee of Janssen Scientific affairs, USA and another is an employee of Janssen-Cilag, Germany. All authors hold company stocks.