Assessing Treatment Patterns and Economic Impact of Atypical Antipsychotics as the First Adjunctive Treatment for MDD

Abstract: Introduction: Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) often cycle through multiple treatments prior to receiving an adjunctive atypical antipsychotic (AA). This study evaluated treatment patterns and costs for patients with MDD initiating AA adjunctive therapy as either a first or subsequent line of therapy (LOT). Methods: Claims data from the IBM® MarketScan® Commercial Database were used to identify adults newly diagnosed with MDD who initiated MDD therapy within 60 days of first diagnosis and had ≥3 months of continuous enrollment post-diagnosis. LOTs (defined as continuous treatment periods of monotherapy or adjunctive therapy regimens), mean healthcare resource utilization, and cost differences were compared using multivariable regression models. Results: Approximately 24% of MDD patients (121,060/508,830) received an adjunctive treatment;