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Examining the Relationship Between Adjunctive Psychotherapy Use and Antipsychotic Persistence and Hospitalization

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Abstract

This study assessed whether the addition of adjunctive psychotherapy to antipsychotic pharmacotherapy improved antipsychotic persistence and reduced the risk of hospitalization among patients with schizophrenia using 2001–2003 Medicaid claims data from four states: Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, and North Carolina. New antipsychotic users aged 18 or older were included. Our study showed that adjunctive psychotherapy use was associated with increased antipsychotic persistence during the first two months of treatment but was not associated with risk of hospitalization. Further research is needed to understand how to optimize the benefits of psychotherapy in terms of frequency of appointments, duration, and type.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Rao: stock ownership with Eli Lilly, Inc., and Pfizer, Inc., Dr. Maciejewski was also supported by a Research Career Scientist award from the Department of Veterans Affairs (RCS 10-391). Drs. Maciejewski and Farley have received consulting support from Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. over the past 12 months. The remaining authors have no conflict of interests to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, National Taiwan University, 1, Jen-Ai Road, Section 1, Taipei, 10051, Taiwan

    Chi-Chuan Wang

  2. Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Department of Veterans Affairs, Durham, NC, USA

    Matthew L. Maciejewski

  3. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Matthew L. Maciejewski

  4. Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Jaya K. Rao, Betsy L. Sleath & Joel F. Farley

  5. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Brian B. Sheitman

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  1. Chi-Chuan Wang
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  2. Matthew L. Maciejewski
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  3. Jaya K. Rao
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  4. Brian B. Sheitman
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  5. Betsy L. Sleath
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  6. Joel F. Farley
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Correspondence to Chi-Chuan Wang.

Additional information

Part of the study results has been published as a poster presentation in the 2011 American Pharmacist Association Annual Meeting and Exposition.

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Wang, CC., Maciejewski, M.L., Rao, J.K. et al. Examining the Relationship Between Adjunctive Psychotherapy Use and Antipsychotic Persistence and Hospitalization. Adm Policy Ment Health 41, 598–607 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0503-7

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