Schizophrenia can be frightening and life-changing. Common symptoms such as disorganized thinking and speech, lack of expressive emotion, social withdrawal, neglect of self-care, hallucinations and delusions alienate individuals with schizophrenia from others and create barriers to day-to-day functioning in society.
Clinicians treating substance use disorder patients at the VA have faced a specific dilemma during the COVID-19 pandemic: How to deal with veterans who need to receive monthly injections at clinics and VAMCs as a critical component of their therapy. Making the choices even more difficult is recent research showing that injectables significantly extend time to relapse for those patients.
VA research has found that about half of veterans with diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder have attempted suicide. Nearly 70% of veterans with schizophrenia and more than 82% of those with bipolar disorder reported suicidal ideation or behavior. That’s why it is so critically important to maintain their medications during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Long-acting injectable drugs has helped the VA do that.
