Real-world adherence assessment of lurasidone and other oral atypical antipsychotics among patients with schizophrenia: an administrative claims analysis

Abstract

Objective: To compare adherence with lurasidone to other oral atypical antipsychotics among Medicaid and commercially insured patients with schizophrenia. Research design and methods: Administrative claims of patients with schizophrenia treated with atypical antipsychotics (lurasidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, or ziprasidone) from October 2010 to September 2011 were identified from MarketScan Commercial and Medicaid Databases, and were classified by the first (index) antipsychotic. Patients were 18–64 years, had insurance coverage 12 months pre- and 6 months post-index, and no pre-index use of the index drug. Main outcome measures: Medication possession ratio (MPR), discontinuation rate, and mean time to discontinuation were assessed post-index. Pairwise comparisons (lurasidone versus each drug) were conducted using chi-square tests and Student’s t-tests. Results: There were 146 Medicaid (mean age 43.5 years, 47.9% female) and 63 commercial (mean age 40.0 years, 42.9% female) patients treated with lurasidone. In the Medicaid population, the MPR for patients treated with lurasidone was 0.60, versus 0.41–0.48 for patients treated with other antipsychotics (all p