BACKGROUND: In an on-going, multicenter, open-label mirror study (Kane et al. J Med Econ. 2013;16:917–925) of patients with schizophrenia (18–65 years) switching from oral standard-of-care (SOC) antipsychotics to aripiprazole once-monthly (AOM), patients had significantly lower total psychiatric hospitalization rates during the 6-month prospective period on AOM therapy versus the 6-month retrospective period on SOC antipsychotic therapy (14.2% [26/183] vs 41.5% [76/183], respectively; p<.0001). With increasing pressure on payers to improve patient outcomes while reducing costs, it is important to understand the impact of AOM treatment initiation on schizophrenia relapse prevention and total cost of care.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze healthcare cost offsets associated with AOM treatment initiation for schizophrenia.
METHODS: An economic model was developed to examine the impact on costs and outcomes of switching to AOM. Cost for hospitalizations, hospital length of stay, emergency department visits, physician office visits, and other drug therapy before and after AOM treatment initiation were estimated from 183 patients with schizophrenia who entered the on-going mirror study. At the time of analysis, 121 patients had at least 3 months of follow-up during the prospective period. Cost estimates were obtained from the HealthCare Costs and Utilization Project (HCUP) report, published literature, and US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Adjustments were made to estimate additional resource use for patients who discontinued the study (lost to follow-up, adverse events, met protocol/investigator withdrawal criteria, protocol deviation, lack of efficacy) and thus did not have complete resource use data from the trial.
RESULTS: To be presented during the conference.
