Continuity of care among patients newly initiated on second-generation oral or long-acting injectable antipsychotics during a schizophrenia-related inpatient stay.

Background: Maintaining continuity of care after schizophrenia-related hospitalization is challenging for patients and healthcare providers and systems. Prior evidence suggests that second-generation long-acting injectable antipsychotics (SGLAIs) may reduce the risk of treatment nonadherence and readmission versus oral atypical antipsychotics (OAAs). Therefore, quality measures were compared between patients initiated on SGLAIs and OAAs in the United States.
Methods: Adults newly initiated on an SGLAI or OAA during a schizophrenia-related inpatient stay were identified in HealthVerity databases (01/2015-12/2020); the index date was the hospital discharge date. Patients had continuous health insurance coverage for pharmacy and medical services for 6 months pre-admission and post-discharge from the inpatient stay and ≥1 pharmacy or medical claim (i.e. treatment as indicated by the observed insurance claims) for an antipsychotic other than the index SGLAI or OAA in the 6 months pre-admission. Antipsychotic use and adherence, and schizophrenia-related readmissions and outpatient visits were compared during the 6-month period post-discharge. Characteristics between cohorts were balanced using inverse probability weights.
Results: Post-discharge, only 36.9% and 40.7% of weighted SGLAI ( N  = 466) and OAA ( N  = 517) patients had ≥1 pharmacy or medical claim for the antipsychotic initiated during the inpatient stay, among whom SGLAI patients were 4.4 times more likely to be adherent to that antipsychotic compared to OAA patients ( p  < .001). Additionally, SGLAI patients were 2.3 and 3.0 times more likely to have a pharmacy or medical claim for and be adherent to any antipsychotic relative to OAA patients (including index antipsychotic; all p  < .001). Within 7 and 30 days post-discharge, 1.7% and 13.0% of SGLAI patients and 4.1% and 12.6% of OAA patients had a readmission. Further, SGLAI patients were 51% more likely to have an outpatient visit compared to OAA patients ( p  = .044).
Conclusions: Less than half of patients initiated on antipsychotics during a schizophrenia-related inpatient stay continued the same treatment post-discharge. However, SGLAI patients were more likely to be adherent to the initiated antipsychotic and to have an outpatient visit, which may suggest improved continuity of care post-discharge relative to OAA patients.