Cervical Cancer Screening Among Female Medicaid Beneficiaries With and Without Schizophrenia.

Background And Hypothesis: In the United States, women with schizophrenia face challenges in receiving gynecologic care, but little is known about how cervical cancer screening rates vary across time or states in a publicly insured population. We hypothesized that women Medicaid beneficiaries with schizophrenia would be less likely to receive cervical cancer screening across the United States compared with a control population, and that women with schizophrenia and other markers of vulnerability would be least likely to receive screening.

Study Design: This retrospective cohort study used US Medicaid administrative data from across 44 states between 2002 and 2012 and examined differences in cervical cancer screening test rates among 283 950 female Medicaid beneficiaries with schizophrenia and a frequency-matched control group without serious mental illness, matched on age and race/ethnicity.

Depression Treatment Among Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries With Incident Cases of Cancer and Newly Diagnosed Depression.

Objective: Depression treatment can improve the health outcomes of elderly cancer survivors. There is a paucity of studies on the extent to which depression is treated among elderly cancer survivors. Therefore, this study estimated the rates of depression treatment among elderly cancer survivors and identified the factors affecting depression treatment.

Antipsychotic dosage at hospital discharge and outcomes among persons with schizophrenia.

Objective: Applying the schizophrenia treatment guidelines established by the Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) project, this study evaluated whether antipsychotic medication dosage influenced patient outcomes in routine clinical settings.

Methods: The associations between discharge antipsychotic medication dosage and short-term clinical, social, and service use outcomes were observed in a sample of 246 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Results: Patients who were given high dosages of antipsychotic medication at hospital discharge (more than 1,000 chlorpromazine milligram equivalents) had greater severity of symptoms three months after discharge than patients who were given guideline-recommended dosages (300 to 1,000 chlorpromazine milligram equivalents) (adjusted mean Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores of 45 and 39, respectively).