OBJECTIVES: To describe patients’ characteristics and patterns of use of depot antipsychotics in patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in Sweden. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted based on longitudinal and population-based data in the Swedish national health registries. The study sample consisted of adult patients who initiated a treatment with any depot antipsychotic for schizophrenia (F20) or schizoaffective disorder (F25) in 2009-2010. Baseline clinical characteristics of patients were searched over the year prior to depot initiation. Persistence (treatment duration) with depot treatment was assessed using a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis until discontinuation or end of the study period (31 December 2011). RESULTS: A total of 2,879 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were included. Mean age was 50.0 years and 54.4% of the patients were male. At baseline, the main psychiatric comorbidities were other psychotic disorders (17% of patients), substance use disorders (11%) and major depressive disorders (3%). Somatic conditions were infrequent (4% diabetes and 3% neurological disorders). The most common depot antipsychotics prescribed were zuclopentixol (32%), perphenazine (28%) and risperidone LAI (19%). These were prescribed primarily by psychiatrists (85%). Median persistence to depot treatment was 195 days. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first large database study conducted in Sweden aiming at describing the patients’ characteristics and treatment patterns of schizophrenic patients treated with depot antipsychotics.  It is notable that the current sub-population of schizophrenic patients treated with depot does not show substantial psychiatric and somatic co-morbidities, possibly due to under-diagnosing of co-morbidities, especially somatic diseases, by psychiatrists.