Objective: To assess healthcare utilization and costs pre- and post-tardive dyskinesia (TD) diagnosis in a sample of patients from the commercially insured and Medicare Supplemental US populations.

Background: TD, an often-irreversible movement disorder caused by prolonged use of antipsychotics, can affect any part of the body and is often debilitating. The estimated prevalence of TD is 15–30% among patients on antipsychotics, and the reported incidence of TD ranges from <1% to 24% depending on the antipsychotics under study. Furthermore, patients with TD are known to have lower quality of life. To date, very few studies on the economic burden of TD have used real-world data.

Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted using Truven MarketScan Commercial and Medicare administrative claims data. For each patient in the analysis, the index date was set as the first TD diagnosis between 1/1/2008 and 9/30/2014. Patients included must have had ≥12 months of both pre- and post-index medical and pharmacy continuous enrollment, ≥1 inpatient (IP) or ≥2 outpatient (OP) non-diagnostic claims for TD (ICD-9 CM 333.85), and no evidence of TD claims during the pre-index period. Descriptive statistics on the incidence of resource utilization and costs of healthcare were reported.

Results: Of 1020 patients (mean age 63.7 years) included in the analysis, 501 (49.1%) patients had commercial insurance and 519 (50.9%) had Medicare. Patients generally had significantly greater utilization during the 12 months after TD diagnosis than in the 12 months before. During the post-TD-diagnosis time, IP admissions occurred for more patients (54.9% vs 37.3%; P<0.001) and more frequently for individual patients (mean 1.0 vs 0.7 visits; P<0.001), and had longer lengths of stay (mean 4.7 vs 3.0 days; P<0.001) than in the pre-TD-diagnosis time. Emergency room visits also occurred for more patients (59.6% vs 51.8%; P<0.001) and more frequently for individual patients (mean 1.8 vs 1.5 visits; P=0.023) during the post-TD-diagnosis than the pre-TD-diagnosis time. Total healthcare costs were significantly greater ($55,980 vs $40,418; P<0.001) in the post-TD-diagnosis than in the pre-TD-diagnosis time.

Conclusions: Patients identified as being diagnosed with TD demonstrate significantly higher healthcare utilization and costs in the 12 months after diagnosis than in the 12 months before diagnosis.

Presented at: AMCP annual meeting; March 28–29, 2017; Denver, CO, USA

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/healthcare-utilization-and-costs-for-patients-with-tardive-dyskinesia/