Healthcare resource utilization, adherence and persistence with antipsychotic therapy among schizophrenia patients with vs. without pre-existing metabolic syndrome.

AbstractObjective:To assess the association between pre-existing metabolic syndrome and health outcomes among veterans with schizophrenia.Methods:The Veterans Integrated Service Network 16 data (VISN16) for 10/2002 – 08/2005 were used to identify patients (n  593) with schizophrenia (ICD-9 codes: 250.xx) who were switched to a new antipsychotic agent in response to metabolic monitoring as part of a VISN 16 metabolic monitoring program. Two groups (patients with pre-existing metabolic syndrome [MetSyn] and without [MetSyn−]) were compared on resource utilization, antipsychotic adherence (medication possession ratio: MPR) and persistence (time to all-cause discontinuation of the switched antipsychotic) over 1 year.Results:About one-third of the patients who have undergone metabolic monitoring before the medication switch (35.2) had metabolic syndrome. The two groups did not significantly differ on healthcare resource utilization, MPR, or time to all-cause medication discontinuation. Adherence and persistence levels were relatively poor for both groups (mean MPR  0.33 for MetSyn; MPR  0.38 for MetSyn−). The median time to all-cause medication discontinuation was 50 days for both groups.Conclusions:In this retrospective study of patients with schizophrenia, the presence of pre-existing metabolic syndrome did not appear to impact patients’ healthcare resource utilization or their adherence and persistence with antipsychotic medication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]