Ragazan DC, Eberhard J, Berge J. Sex-Specific Associations Between Bipolar Disorder Pharmacological Maintenance Therapies and Inpatient Rehospitalizations: A 9-Year Swedish National Registry Study.
Front Psychiatry 2020;
11:598946. [PMID:
33262715 PMCID:
PMC7688467 DOI:
10.3389/fpsyt.2020.598946]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Long-term pharmacological maintenance therapy is often essential among people with bipolar disorder to reduce the need for inpatient care. Sex-specific responses to maintenance therapies are expected but remain largely unknown. Here, we examined for sex-specific associations between common maintenance therapies for bipolar disorder with inpatient rehospitalizations following patients' index discharges during 2006-2014. Methods: Population-based data on maintenance therapies and rehospitalizations were extracted from Swedish national registries. We adopted the within-individual design to compare the time on- vs. off- maintenance therapy for males and females, respectively. Extended stratified Cox proportional hazards regression models were employed to quantify the rate of rehospitalization as a function of common maintenance drugs and other important time-varying control variables. Results: Our primary analysis included 22,681 bipolar disorder rehospitalizations by 6,400 males and 9,588 (60.0%) females over an observation time of 62,813 person-years. The time spent on- vs. off- maintenance lithium, lamotrigine, quetiapine, or olanzapine was statistically significant upon adjustment among either sex for reducing the rate of bipolar rehospitalizations. Adjusted sex-specific statistically significant associations were also observed. Among females, the time on- (vs. off-) long-acting injectable risperidone reduced the rate of bipolar rehospitalizations by 73% (56-84%), carbamazepine by 44% (18-62%), aripiprazole by 29% (13-42%), and valproate by 23% (11-33%); whereas among males, ziprasidone by 65% (41-79%). Conclusion: The effectiveness of most maintenance therapies is generally comparable and uniform among both males and females. Despite some statistically significant sex-specific associations, estimates for each drug were fairly consistent between sexes.
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