Real-world effectiveness of psychopharmacological treatments: recent insights
Recent evidence has shown that in schizophrenia, only 10–20% of atypical patients are selected for RCTs investigating the efficacy of antipsychotic treatment. Therefore, the generalizability of RCTs to real-world patient population can be questioned. In addition, in RCTs, it is practically impossible to study the risk of death or rare severe side effects related to specific medication. This presentation will inform how large nation-wide registers can be used to study these issues.
Finland and Sweden have unique person identification number for each individual that enables linking of data on filled prescriptions in pharmacies, hospital admissions, work disability benefits, and mortality. This presentation will review methodological issues related to RCTs versus observational studies and show results on real-world effectiveness of specific psychotropic medications related to risk of relapse, work disability, and death among patients with non-affective psychosis, bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, and personality disorders.
