Treatment strategies in management of schizophrenia patients with persistent symptoms in daily practice: a retrospective study.

LAIA administration and oral antipsychotic augmentation were the most common interventions in the patients with persistent symptoms. Clozapine was related to better clinical improvement in the present study and it might be administered as a second-line treatment in schizophrenia.Key pointsEffectiveness of the treatment strategies in schizophrenia patients with persistent symptoms is not satisfactory to meet expectations of the clinicians yet. Clozapine still seems to be the best option to provide a favourable improvement in TRS.LAIA and oral AP combination are used frequently in schizophrenia for persistent psychotic symptoms and targets of the combination therapies in daily practice needs to be clarified.The most common intervention was transition to a LAIA (47%) in the study and none of the patients administered LAIA had used a long-acting AP before the intervention. High rate of treatment nonadherence in schizophrenia is an important reason for common LAIA preference in the patients with persistent symptoms.Growing evidence indicates that clozapine can be used as a second-line treatment in schizophrenia, and thus, there is an urgent need to increase clozapine use in the patients with persistent symptoms in clinical practice.