Time-dependent effect analysis of antipsychotic treatment in a naturalistic cohort study of patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE

Evidence based treatment of schizophrenia as well as antipsychotic drug utility patterns have changed considerably in recent years and the present study aims to investigate the current level of unplanned hospital readmissions in a cohort of patients with schizophrenia, and to determine the risk-reducing effects of current antipsychotic drug treatment.

METHOD

An open cohort study included all consecutively discharged patients with schizophrenia in a 3-year period (n=277). The treatment-dependent variables were entered in a multivariate Cox survival analyses with time to unplanned readmission as the dependent variable.

RESULTS

11.2% of patients were readmitted within 30 days of discharge, and 44.8% were readmitted within 12 months. Antipsychotic monotherapy reduced the risk of readmission by 74.9%. Treatment in CMHC also had a risk-reducing effect. The prescription rate of clozapine in this sample was 10.1%.

DISCUSSION

The over-all level of unplanned readmissions was in correspondence with the findings of others. Current antipsychotic drug treatment independently offers strong protection against unplanned readmissions. There may be a potential for further optimalizing antipsychotic drug treatment according to treatment guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS

Unplanned readmissions are very common for patients with schizophrenia but antipsychotic drug treatment is associated with a strong risk-reducing effect in this regard.