Date Available

5-7-2020

Year of Publication

2020

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Pharmacy

Department/School/Program

Pharmaceutical Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Dave Feola

Abstract

Objectives: We investigated whether there is a measurable difference in medication utilization for psychiatric conditions before and after bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Previous studies have identified a potential association between psychiatric conditions and immune function. We hypothesized that medication utilization for psychiatric diagnoses would be impacted by BMT.

Methods: This study was a retrospective, quasi-experimental cohort design. De-identified data was compiled from the Truven database for patients ranging from January 2009 through December 2016. Two measurements of medication utilization, proportion of days covered (PDC) and medication possession ratio (MPR) were calculated for each included Medispan-defined class of medications before analyzing changes in PDC and MPR at the patient level.

Results: Overall, 8,233 patients met the inclusion criteria. Across each measured medication class (anti-anxiety medications, anti-convulsants, antidepressant, hypnotic/sedatives, migraine medications and opioids) there was a statistically significant decrease in the number of raw prescriptions as well as in PDC value in the 2 years after BMT as compared to before the procedure.

Conclusions: We found a decrease in medication utilization after BMT across the measured medication classes, indicating a potential resolution of psychiatric symptoms and a potential impact on the associated pathophysiology. These results provide support for the premise that genetic factors associated with immune function play a role in psychiatric illness.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2020.208

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