title: Decline in hospitalization risk and health care cost after initiation of depot antipsychotics in the treatment of schizophrenia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess change in hospitalization and cost of care from 6 months pre- to 6 months post-initiation on any depot antipsychotic among schizophrenia patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a large United States commercial claims and encounters database, patients younger than 65 years diagnosed with schizophrenia were identified. Patients initiated on a depot antipsychotic were studied in a mirror-image design to assess change in hospitalization rates, mean duration hospitalized, and hospitalization cost. McNemar's test and paired t-tests compared the proportions of patients hospitalized and the mean duration. Paired t-test and bootstrapping methods compared costs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In these patients (n = 147), psychiatric hospitalizations declined from 49.7% pre-initiation to 22.4% post-initiation (P < 0.001), and the mean hospitalized duration for psychiatric purposes numerically declined from 7.3 to 4.7 days (P = 0.05). Total health care costs declined from $11,111 to $7884 (P < 0.05) driven by reduction in costs for psychiatric hospitalizations from $5384 to $2538 (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Initiation of depot antipsychotic therapy appeared to be associated with a decline in hospitalization rates and costs. Current findings suggest that treatment with depot antipsychotics may be a cost-effective option for a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia who are at high risk of nonadherence with their oral antipsychotic medication regimen.
authors.affiliation: Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaomei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Haya
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ascher-Svanum
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faries
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Conley
authors.forename: Kory J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Schuh