Monday, April 6, 2009

Does Antipsychotic Treatment Impact Pediatric Health Care Costs?

Declining health care costs in pediatric patients treated with antipsychotic agents are being offset by the health care costs associated with the development of adverse events related to these medications.

Using retrospective data from South Carolina's Medicaid medical and pharmacy claims between January, 1996 and December, 2005, researchers Jeanette Jerrell, Ph.D., and Roger McIntyre, M.D., identified 4140 children and adolescents prescribed antipsychotic medications, and a random sample of 4500 children not treated with psychotropic medications. Their main outcome measures were total health care costs and emergency, inpatient, and outpatient services use over time, but they included pre-existing medical conditions, receipt of multiple psychotropic medications, and individual risk factor differences for gender, age group, and ethnicity in the analyses.

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