Impact of antidepressant dispensing on health service use among veterans with XXXX .

@entity1 @entity64 @entity750
OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between dispensing of a selective @entity750 reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant medication and inpatient and outpatient service use in a cohort of veterans with confirmed @entity64 . DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Southeastern U. S. Veterans Health Administration (VHA) network, from October 1, 2000, to September 30, 2001. @entity1 : 785 veterans with confirmed @entity64 . INTERVENTION: VHA and Medicare databases were used to obtain outcome information during the 12 months after the index @entity64 date. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Number of inpatient admissions, length of inpatient stays, and number of outpatient clinic stops for all causes. RESULTS: Among the study cohort (n = 785), 12% had an SSRI dispensed 30 days or less poststroke, 19% had an SSRI dispensed between 31 and 365 days poststroke, and 69% were not dispensed an SSRI poststroke. After adjusting for risk factors, no significant association was found between time to first SSRI dispensing and inpatient use. However, @entity1 with an early SSRI dispensing were more likely to have a greater number of all-cause outpatient stops compared with @entity1 with later or no SSRI dispensing. Regardless of time to first dispensing, @entity1 dispensed an SSRI had more outpatient clinic stops than @entity1 without the medication. CONCLUSION: SSRI dispensing was not predictive of inpatient use but was a strong predictor of all-cause outpatient clinic stops.
