Pharmacotherapy effectiveness for clinical subgroups among children and adolescents with early onset schizophrenia

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of pharmacotherapies among children and adolescents diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia subgrouped according to their co-occurring psychiatric disorders.

A retrospective cohort design was employed, using South Carolina's (USA) Medicaid claims dataset covering outpatient and inpatient medical services, between January, 1999 and December, 2013 to identify patients ≤17 years of age. Random effects regression analyses assessed differential changes in acute psychiatric service utilization over time across the 3 subgroups associated with antipsychotic, mood stabilizer, psychostimulant, or antidepressant pharmacotherapy.

For patients with schizophrenia and comorbid mood disorders or emotional dysregulation (Cluster 1), or schizophrenia and severe cognitive impairments (Cluster 2), those treated with monotherapy second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) over time demonstrated consistently lower use of acute psychiatric treatment services as did those coprescribed mood stabilizers, primarily lithium, or anticonvulsants. In all clusters, including the relatively homogenous subgroup of patients with early onset schizophrenia and few comorbid disorders, acute psychiatric service utilization was significantly higher and more variable over time for those prescribed multiple SGAs.

Regardless of the specific constellation of symptoms and comorbid disorders targeted, the coprescription of multiple SGAs was not effective over time in stabilizing children and adolescents outside of acute care settings.