Abstract Background The comparative effectiveness of antipsychotic long-acting injections (LAIs) and oral medication is not clear due to various methodological problems. Methods To compare the effectiveness of LAIs and oral antipsychotics in preventing readmission in patients with schizophrenia, we performed a within-subject analysis of data collected from 75,274 patients hospitalized with schizophrenia over a 10-year period (2008–2017). Readmission rates were compared according to medication status (non-medication, oral medication alone, and LAI medication). Each admission episodes were compared according to medication status before admission. Results Total 132,028 episodes of admission were analyzed. During 255,664 person-years of total observation, 101,589 outcome events occurred. Comparing LAI to only oral medication, IRR was 0.71 (0.64–0.78, P
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