Posttraumatic stress disorder and odds of major invasive procedures among U.S. Veterans Affairs patients.

OBJECTIVES: Although individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at heightened risk for several serious health conditions, research has not examined how having PTSD impacts receipt of invasive procedures that may alleviate these problems. We examined whether PTSD, after controlling for major depression, was associated with odds of receiving common types of major invasive procedures, and whether race, ethnicity, and gender was associated with odds of procedures. METHODS: Veterans Health Administration patients with PTSD and/or depression were age-matched with patients without these disorders. The odds of invasive hip/knee, digestive system, coronary artery bypass graft/percutaneous coronary intervention (CABG/PCI), and vascular procedures during FY2006-2009 were modeled for the full sample of 501,489 patients and for at-risk subsamples with medical conditions alleviated by the procedures examined. RESULTS: Adjusting for demographic covariates and medical comorbidity, PTSD without depression was associated with decreased odds of all types of procedures (odds ratios [OR] range 0.74-0.82), as was depression without PTSD (OR range 0.59-0.77). In analyses of at-risk patients, those with PTSD only were less likely to undergo hip/knee (OR=0.78) and vascular procedures (OR=0.73) but not CABG/PCI. African-Americans and women at-risk patients were less likely to undergo hip/knee, vascular, and CABG/PCI procedures (OR range 0.31-0.82). CONCLUSION: With the exception of CABG/PCI among at-risk patients, Veterans with PTSD and/or depression were less likely to undergo all types of procedures examined. Future studies should examine the reasons for this disparity and whether it is associated with subsequent adverse outcomes.

Can medication management coordinators help improve continuity of care after psychiatric hospitalization?

OBJECTIVE: This demonstration project examined whether medication management coordinators enhanced continuity of care from inpatient facilities to an outpatient public mental health clinic. METHODS: From 2004 to 2008, patients (N=325) hospitalized with schizophrenia or schizoaffective or bipolar disorder enrolled in a medication management program before discharge or at their first clinic appointment. Medication management coordinators supplemented existing clinic practices by identifying recently hospitalized patients, providing inpatient and outpatient prescribing clinicians with patients' complete medication history, meeting with patients for six months postdischarge to assess clinical status and provide medication education, and advocating guideline-concordant prescribing. Recently discharged patients (N=345) assigned to a different outpatient clinic within the same agency served as the comparison group. Intent-to-treat, repeated-measures analyses for mixed models compared the groups' number of hospital admissions, hospital days, and medication appointments kept and use of nurse or case manager contact hours and emergency or crisis services during the 12 months before enrollment, the six-month intervention, and the six-month follow-up period. RESULTS: After discharge, individuals enrolled in medication management were more likely than comparison patients to attend outpatient appointments, and they had more medication visits and nurse or case manager treatment hours than the comparison group. Use of hospital and crisis or emergency services by all patients decreased. Almost one-third of patients never attended an outpatient appointment after hospital discharge. CONCLUSIONS: Although this program succeeded in improving continuity of care, additional interventions may be required to reduce rehospitalization and crisis care.

Use of obesity-related care by psychiatric patients.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess receipt of obesity care by patients with and without mental illness. METHODS: The sample consisted of 254,051 obese primary care patients surviving through fiscal year (FY) 2006. Administrative data for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients who were obese in FY 2002 (body mass index ≥30) and received primary care in one of six selected VHA regions were included. Outcomes were receipt of obesity care and weight loss during FY 2002-FY 2006. Covariates included baseline mental illness (major depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders; ICD-9-CM codes 290-311); psychotropic medications associated with weight gain; comorbidity; and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Most patients were male (95%), non-Hispanic white (80%), older than 50 (mean±SD=61±12) with comorbid hypertension (65%) and dyslipidemia (50%). One-fifth (20%) had mental illness, primarily depression (8%) or posttraumatic stress disorder (6%). Ten percent of the sample lost weight, and 7% gained ≥10% from baseline weight). Although one-third (34%) received obesity care during the study period, receipt of this care was more common among patients with psychiatric diagnoses (46% versus 31%). In multivariable analysis, psychiatric patients prescribed obesogenic psychotropic medications were more likely than other patients to receive obesity care (interaction effect). CONCLUSIONS: VHA efforts to help obese patients manage their weight appeared more common for patients prescribed obesogenic psychotropic medication, especially those with psychiatric diagnoses. The results of this study represent an unusual example in which psychiatric patients were relatively more likely to receive care addressing cardiometabolic risk factors.