Medication decisions and clinical outcomes in the Canadian National Outcomes Measurement Study in Schizophrenia.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate over a 2-year period, patients from academic/non-academic centres, from each region of Canada, to determine whether location or other variables such as medication type, gender or income was associated with outcome as defined by non-hospitalization and persistence on original treatment.


METHODS
A total of 448 patients were recruited from academic and non-academic centres across all provinces of Canada and followed up for 2 years.


RESULTS
Patients from British Columbia had significantly lower rates of hospitalization than patients from other provinces. Male patients showed greater symptomatic improvement at 2 years from initial assessment compared to females. Patients on clozapine, risperidone and olanzapine were least likely to be hospitalized.


CONCLUSIONS
There were some regional differences noted in both utilization of types of antipsychotic medications and hospitalization rates. In this sample of stable out-patients over 70% who started on monotherapy with clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine and quetiapine remained on the same medication over the 2-year study period.
Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. richard.williams@viha.ca
R
R
Williams
L
L
Kopala
A
A
Malla
G
G
Smith
L
L
Love
R
R
Balshaw
D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001955:British Columbia; D002170:Canada; D003155:Community Mental Health Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents