4%) positively endorsed the statement that LAIs were

part of a patient-centred approach to treatment and fewer (11.7%) disagreed that LAI Smo activity administration was associated with a greater risk of stigma. In addition, over half (65.6%) believed that patients’ families and friends were more accepting of LAIs. Only very few agreed LAIs were old fashioned (4.7%), with over half (64.8%) believing the good aspects of LAIs outweigh the bad. A majority believed LAIs prevent relapse (90.6%) and that it was easier to monitor patient adherence (94.5%) compared with patients on oral medications. In contrast, a majority believed that force is sometimes required Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical when administering a LAI to patients (72.7%). Table 1. Knowledge and attitude statements. Overall, the knowledge of the Nigerian mental health professionals in this study was fair. Their knowledge as evident in the subscale scores (mean, SD) was fair: general knowledge about

LAIs (46.8, 5.8), knowledge of side effects (25.7, 5.2). Less than half (46.9%) agreed that LAIs were appropriate for Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical patients under 30. Most (91.4%) agreed that LAIs have comparable efficacy to oral medications. Almost half (46.9%) agreed that major side effects are more commonly associated with FGA-LAIs than with oral FGAs. Moreover, a majority believed that fear of injections was a major reason why patients decline to accept LAIs (71.9%) (see table 1 for full details). There was a positive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and significant correlation between total knowledge and attitude scores (r = 0.30, p < 0.001). There were no differences in subscale scores compared with gender or years of experience (≤5years/>5 years). However, respondents

who reported higher prescribing rates for LAIs (≤40%/>40%) had significantly higher mean scores on the patient-centred Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical attitudes subscale (29.89 versus 28.27, t = 2.107, p < 0.04). In addition, post hoc individual item analysis revealed that respondents whose reported prescribing rate for LAIs was less than or equal to 40% were significantly more likely to believe that LAIs were coercive (p < 0.01) and more likely to positively endorse the statement that patients receiving LAIs had a forensic history (p < 0.03). Additionally, respondents who personally disliked injections had significantly higher scores on the patient choice subscale (t = 2.656, p < 0.01).In particular, psychiatrists who disliked injections for themselves were significantly more likely to believe Florfenicol that relapse rates were lower with oral medications compared with LAIs (p < 0.01). Discussion The authors believe that this is the first report on the knowledge and attitudes of psychiatrists from Africa towards LAIs and that it reduces the paucity of research in this field from developing countries [Waddell and Taylor, 2009]. Our main findings were that psychiatrists’ use of LAIs was fairly high, though knowledge was fair. Certain attributes of the respondents (e.g.