While several studies have examined real-world pharmacologic treatment patterns and costs among major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, few have examined the use of non-pharmacologic treatments. IVI recently conducted a study alongside HealthCore to describe the prevalence and predictors of treatment modality, healthcare resource utilization, and costs for newly diagnosed MDD patients. Commercially-insured US adult patients newly diagnosed with MDD were retrospectively identified from the HealthCore Integrated Research Database®. Those with co-occurring schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, postpartum depression, substance use disorder, or prior MDD treatments were excluded. Of the 12,657 identified MDD patients, 34% received pharmacologics only, 25% non-pharmacologic treatment only, 28% both, and 13% neither. Average monthly total health care costs from all causes were $792, $633, $786, and $1,292, respectively. In multivariable logistic regression among patients with ≥2 MDD severity assessments, those who received Rx-only (Odds Ratio [OR]: 2.03, p<0.01) and both (OR: 3.26, p<0.01) had higher odds of decreasing MDD severity than those who received neither. In this real-world sample of commercially-insured patients, we observed variations in outcomes by treatment modality and an association between modality and disease severity. Further research should explore the relation between treatment modality and patient outcomes.
The results of this study were presented at AMCP Nexus 2022.
