Objectives: To compare mental healthcare use and healthcare professional (HCP) contacts for patients before and after initiation of paliperidone palmitate.
Setting: The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) Biomedical Research Centre Clinical Record Interactive Search.
Participants: We identified all adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision: F20.x), who had received paliperidone palmitate prescription for at least 365 days and had at least 1 year of recorded treatment from SLAM, prior to the first recorded receipt of paliperidone palmitate.
Primary and secondary outcome measures: Inpatient and community mental healthcare service use, such as inpatient bed days, number of active days in the service, face-to-face and telephone HCP use in the 12 months before and after paliperidone palmitate initiation.
Results: We identified 664 patients initiated on paliperidone palmitate. Following initiation, inpatient bed days were lower, although patients remained active on the service case load longer for both mirror approach 1 (mean difference of inpatient bed days -10.48 (95% CI -15.75 to -5.22); days active 40.67 (95% CI 33.39 to 47.95)) and mirror approach 2 (mean difference of inpatient bed days -23.96 (95% CI -30.01 to -17.92); mean difference of days active 40.69 (95% CI 33.39 to 47.94)). The postinitiation period was further characterised by fewer face-to-face and telephone contacts with medical and social work HCPs, and an increased contact with clinical psychologists.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate a change in the profile of HCP use, consistent with a transition from treatment to possible rehabilitation.
Keywords: adult psychiatry; mental health; schizophrenia & psychotic disorders.
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.