Healthcare utilization and expenditures for United States Medicare beneficiaries with systemic vasculitis.

Objective: The Medicare federal insurance program is the most common United States insurer of patients with systemic vasculitis (SV). We compared healthcare utilization and expenditures for Medicare beneficiaries with versus without SV.

Methods: This national, retrospective study used 2010 claims and enrollment data for a 100% cohort of Medicare Part A and B beneficiaries with ≥1 claim including a diagnosis for a form of SV (n = 176,498), and a randomly selected group of non-SV beneficiaries (n = 46,561).

Schizophrenia: overview and treatment options.

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder characterized by an array of symptoms. This heterogeneity has resulted in a lack of consensus regarding diagnostic criteria, etiology, and pathophysiology, and has complicated efforts to devise effective treatments.