Video transcript
Terence:
The first time I actually saw a patient being given a long-acting injectable, the notion behind it was that this patient, there was no hope, right? That this patient failed treatment. Just like most clinicians that I worked with at that time, we all saw LAIs as something that was given to somebody because there was no other treatment that was working. And they would just give an LAI to that person just hoping that…we tried everything else, and it didn’t work. That was my perception. Now, getting to know about LAIs now, it is very, you know, I sometimes look back and I say, that was, a terrible way of thinking because of the things that you see when they’re started early, because the goal is always to start them early for the patient if it’s possible, instead of late.
Linda:
I mean, I’ve always been supportive of LAIs. With the first patient I saw on an LAI and how well they were doing, I was always supportive of LAIs. I understood adherence, I understood why there was a benefit for using LAIs. I think one of the things that brought it to light for me to really be supportive of LAIs is actually the studies that we have indicating that when you look at LAIs compared to a group of oral antipsychotics, LAIs definitely delay time to relapse in comparison to our usual oral antipsychotics. And you cannot deny that that’s factual. That’s, you know, we studied it, we know it. Obviously, there are items to support that. And I think that that’s the direction we’re going to go towards more and more, as we manage, further manage, and better manage schizophrenia.
Mia:
If you think, I started practicing in 1999, at that time, the only long-acting injectables were depot injections, which I was not a fan of at that time because of the side effects. So, we were using a lot of orals, but we were still having a lot of problems with adherence with our patients. So, when INVEGA SUSTENNA® came in the market in 2009, for me, it was like a blessing because I said, I have a medication that lasts a bit longer, a month, and then, it’s not a trouble. It takes a couple minutes to really put the syringe and prepare it and put it to the patient. As a matter of fact, my med students can do it in three minutes.
Linda:
The nicest thing about giving a patient an LAI is there’s a lot of, basically statement of facts. There’s a lot of security there, knowing that the dose that you’re giving the patient is the dose that they’re receiving, that if you’re giving them an LAI, it’s going to be in their system for a certain amount of time. And, if they miss their appointment with you, you know that you can actually pick up the phone and give them a call or have your MA call them or staff call them to come in. So, there’s a lot of security as a prescriber prescribing LAIs in that sense, because there’s so much information that you know is actually going on, versus writing a prescription for oral antipsychotics, sending the patient home with a bottle and then hoping that they’re taking it every day.
Mia:
When I think about a patient that has multiple relapses, and I’m already seeing the changes in cognition after each one of the relapses, I know, if the patient cannot tell me what they ate the night before, they’re not going to remember they took that pill and what time they took it. So, that for me is a step to bring to the plate why we can put them on a long-acting injectable because they’re not going to remember the oral but with a long-acting...I would remember when is the next medication. So, I think that opened the door for them to be on a long-acting injectable. I have times in my office that…there’s a moment that a patient comes in, I’m talking about long-acting injectable, and I say, instead of taking medication daily, you can have your medication in a form of an injection that will cover you for 30 days. And the patient says, “Really? This exists?” And in my case, I’m in shock that here we are in 2024 and somebody doesn’t know about the existence of long-acting injectables.
LAI=long-acting injectable.