In Schizophrenia Patients, Do Long-Acting Injectables Outperform Oral Antipsychotics?

Patients with schizophrenia who receive long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIA) are more likely to maintain treatment, which may lead to less inpatient admissions compared with those taking oral medication, according to the results of a recent study.

In order to examine treatment patterns, healthcare utilization, and costs among patients diagnosed with schizophrenia receiving oral therapy vs LAIA, researchers conducted an analysis of patients in the MarketScan Multi-state Medicaid database. Participants were 18 years or older who received either LAIA or oral antipsychotics between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2014.

Overall, 2302 patients were included in each of the LAIA and oral antipsychotic cohorts. Compared with oral therapy, LAIAs were associated with lower discontinuation rates (46.1 vs. 61.6%), fewer inpatient admissions (0.5 vs. 0.9), hospital days (3.9 vs. 6.5), and ER visits (2.4 vs. 2.9, p = 0.007), and a higher number of prescription fills (29.5 vs. 25.3). Those taking LAIAs had lower monthly inpatient and ER visit costs, but higher monthly medication costs over the 12-month post-index period. Total medical costs were similar between the 2 groups.

“Patients receiving LAIs were more likely to remain on medication compared with the oral group, which may account for reduced inpatient admissions. Hospitalization cost reductions offset the higher costs of LAI medications, resulting in no increase in total healthcare costs relative to oral antipsychotic use.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Shah A, Xie L, Kariburyo F, Zhang Q, Gore M. Treatment patterns, healthcare resource utilization and costs among schizophrenia patients treated with long-acting injectable versus oral antipsychotics [published online September 29, 2018]. Adv Ther. doi: 10.1007/s12325-018-0786-x.