Assessing the quality of the care offer for people with personality disorders in Italy: the QUADIM project. A multicentre research based on the database of use of Mental Health services

Association of Antipsychotic Polypharmacy and Two-Year All-Cause Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study of 33,221 Italian Continuous Users

Background: Differences in survival between patients treated with antipsychotic monotherapy vs. polytherapy are debated. This study aimed to examine the association of antipsychotic polytherapy with 2-year all-cause mortality in a population-based cohort. Methods: Data were retrieved from healthcare databases of four local health units of Lombardy, Italy. Subjects aged 18-79 years who received continuous antipsychotic prescriptions in 2018 were identified. Overall survival among patients with antipsychotic monotherapy vs. polytherapy was compared. A multivariate Cox PH model was used to estimate the association between antipsychotic therapy, or antipsychotic use (continuous vs. non-continuous), and all-cause mortality. Adjustments were made for the presence of metabolic disturbances, total antipsychotic dosage amount (olanzapine equivalent doses), age, and sex. Results: A total of 49,875 subjects receiving at least one prescription of antipsychotics during 2018 were identified. Among the 33,221 patients receiving continuative antipsychotic prescriptions, 1958 (5.9%) experienced death from any cause at two years. Patients with continuous antipsychotic use had a 1.13-point increased mortality risk compared with non-continuous users. Patients treated with antipsychotic polytherapy showed an adjusted mortality risk increased by 17% (95% CI: 2%, 33%) compared to monotherapy. Conclusions: The study highlights the potential risks associated with antipsychotic polypharmacy, emphasizing the importance of optimizing drug prescriptions to improve patient safety and reduce mortality rates in individuals receiving antipsychotic therapy.

Is the long-term poor prognosis of acute myocardial infarction in patients with mental illness mediated through their poor adherence with recommended healthcare?

BACKGROUND

Compared with patients without evidence of psychiatric symptoms, those with mental disorders experience reduced adherence with recommended healthcare and poorer clinical outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate whether the worse prognosis of patients with mental disorders after experiencing acute myocardial infarction could be fully or partially mediated by their reduced adherence to recommended healthcare.

METHODS

In this retrospective cohort population-based study, 103 389 residents in the Italian Lombardy Region who experienced acute myocardial infarction in 2007-19 were identified. Among them, 1549 patients with severe mental illness (SMI) were matched with five cohort members without evidence of mental disorders (references). Recommended healthcare (cardiac medicaments and selected outpatient services) was evaluated in the year after the date of index hospital discharge. The first occurrences of cardiovascular (CV) hospital admissions and any-cause-death were considered as endpoints. Mediation analysis was performed to investigate whether post-discharge use of recommended healthcare may be considered a mediator of the relationship between healthcare exposure and endpoints occurrence.

RESULTS

Compared with references, patients with SMI had lower adherence with recommended healthcare and adjusted risk excesses of 39% and 73% for CV hospitalizations and all-cause mortality. Mediation analysis showed that 4.1% and 11.3% of, respectively, CV hospitalizations and deaths occurred among psychiatric patients was mediated by their worse adherence to specific healthcare.

CONCLUSION

The reduced use of recommended outpatient healthcare by patients with SMI had only a marginal effect on their worse prognosis. Other key factors mediating the prognostic gap between patients with and without mental disorders should be investigated.