Jørgensen KT, Bøg M, Kabra M, et al. - Disease progression in patients with schizophrenia is characterized by recurrence of relapses which often result in substantial negative impacts for the individual. In view of the reports describing a strong correlation of a patient’s relapse history (specifically the number of prior relapses) with the risk for future relapse, researchers sought to quantify the relationship of time to relapse in schizophrenia with a patient’s history of prior relapses using real-world data from Sweden.

• The Swedish National Patient Register and Swedish Prescribed Drug Register yielded data of 2,994 patients for inclusion.

• Using a primary proxy that defined relapse as a psychiatric hospitalization of ≥ 7 days’ duration, 5,820 relapse episodes were identified.

• There appeared a general trend of decreasing estimated time between relapses in schizophrenia, each relapse episode predisposes an individual to the next within a shorter time period.

• Overall findings emphasize the relevance of administering early, effective, and tolerable therapies that better meet a patient’s individual needs.