Trial that pays patients to take antipsychotic drugs comes under attack

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4202

Published 12 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4202
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4202

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Trial that pays patients to take antipsychotic drugs comes under attack

Lynn Eaton

¹ London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Mental health campaigners have criticised a recently approvedtrial that will offer patients a financial incentive for takingdepot injections of antipsychotic drugs.

Researchers based at the University of London’s QueenMary College intend to invite 36 outreach teams who care for"difficult to engage" patients to take part in the randomisedcontrolled trial, says the study protocol, published in BMCPsychiatry (2009;9:61, doi:10.1186/1471-244X-9-61). Half ofthe teams would be allowed to offer a £15 ( ${euro}$ 16; $24) paymentto selected patients who have schizophrenia or bipolar disorderand who often miss their depot injections. The researchers estimatethat there may be only four such people in each team’sgroup of clients. The remaining control teams would not offera payment. The researchers will measure the effect of the initiativeon patients’ compliance and its cost effectiveness.