Predicting rehospitalization in patients treated with antipsychotics: a prospective observational study

Prediction of rehospitalization in patients treated with antipsychotics is important for identifying patients in need of additional support to prevent hospitalization. Our aim was to identify factors that predict rehospitalization in patients treated with antipsychotics at discharge from a psychiatric hospital.

Adult patients suffering from schizophrenia, psychotic or bipolar I disorders who had been hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital for ⩾7 days and were treated with oral antipsychotics at discharge were included. The main outcome was rehospitalization within 6 months after discharge. A prediction model for rehospitalization was constructed including: patient/disease and medication characteristics, patients' beliefs about medicines, and healthcare-professional-rated assessment for all patients. The patients were stratified by diagnosis (schizophrenia and nonschizophrenia). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC_ROC) was also assessed.

A total of 87 patients were included and 33.3% of them were rehospitalized within 6 months after discharge. The variables that predicted rehospitalization were duration of hospitalization, patients' attitude towards medicine use, and healthcare-professional-rated assessment with an AUC_ROC of 0.82. Rehospitalization for patients with schizophrenia could be predicted (AUC_ROC = 0.71) by the Global Assessment of Functioning score, age, and harm score. Rehospitalization was predicted (AUC_ROC = 0.73) for nonschizophrenia patients with, for example rehospitalization predicted by the nurse.

Rehospitalization was predicted by a combination of variables from the patient/disease and medication characteristics, patients' attitude towards medicine use, and healthcare-professional-rated assessment. These variables can be assessed relatively easily at discharge to predict rehospitalization within 6 months.