Impact of Paliperidone Palmitate Versus Oral Atypical Antipsychotics on Health Care Resource Use and Costs in Veterans with Schizophrenia.

Abstract To compare health care resource utilization and costs in veterans with schizophrenia treated with paliperidone palmitate (PP) versus oral atypical antipsychotics (OAAs). A retrospective longitudinal study was conducted using electronic health record data from the Veterans Health Administration. Veterans with schizophrenia (identified using ICD-9-CM 295.x) initiating PP or OAAs between January 2010 and October 2014, with ≥ 12 months of benefits enrollment prior to treatment initiation and ≥ 6 months of enrollment after treatment initiation, and with ≥ 1 Global Assessment of Functioning measurement at baseline were included. Inverse probability of treatment weighted regression models were used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and cost differences (CDs) for the impact of PP versus OAAs on health care resource utilization and costs. Among 10,290 eligible veterans, 2,285 and 8,005 were initiated on PP and OAAs, respectively. After adjustment, PP was associated with less frequent all-cause inpatient hospitalizations (IRR = 0.89, P