Early non-adherence to medication and other risk factors for rehospitalization in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Non-adherence to antipsychotic medication and hospitalization in psychotic disorders are common and costly problems. Our aim was to identify risk factors for rehospitalization of patients with recent onset schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in a population-based cohort study. All patients with a first hospitalization for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder between 2006 and 2007 were included (n = 861). Patients were identified through and data retrieved from national Swedish health and population registers. We investigated how socio-demographic variables, duration of first hospitalization and prescription fills of antipsychotics were associated with rehospitalization in Cox regression models. A higher risk for rehospitalization within 28 days was observed in patients with a first hospitalization that was shorter than two weeks compared with patients who were hospitalized for more than four weeks: hazard ratio (HR) 2.30, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.42 to 3.74. Further, patients who did not fill a prescription of antipsychotics within the first week after discharge had a higher risk of early rehospitalization than patients who were given antipsychotics (HR 1.75, 95% CI 1.13 to 2.72). More than 12 years of education was associated with a lower risk of early rehospitalization (HR 0.44, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.77). Sex, age, being born in Sweden, urban area residence and prescription fills of antipsychotics prior to first admission did not significantly affect the risk of early rehospitalization. In conclusion, we identified two potentially modifiable risk factors for rehospitalization: short duration of initial hospitalization and early non-adherence to medication.