An exploratory database study of factors influencing the continuation of brexpiprazole treatment (prescription) in patients with schizophrenia using information from psychiatric electronic medical records processed with natural language processing

Using natural language processing (NLP) technology to analyze and organize textual information in psychiatric electronic medical records can identify undiscovered factors associated with treatment discontinuation. This study aimed to evaluate brexpiprazole treatment continuation rate and factors affecting brexpiprazole discontinuation using a database that employs the MENTAT (R) system with NLP technology. This retrospective observational study evaluated patients with schizophrenia who were newly initiated on brexpiprazole (April 18, 2018May 15, 2020). The first prescriptions of brexpiprazole were followed up for 180 days. Factors associated with brexpiprazole discontinuation were assessed using structured and unstructured patient data (April 18, 2017December 31, 2020). The analysis population comprised 515 patients; mean (standard deviation) age of patients was 48.0 (15.3) years, and 47.8 % were male. Using Kaplan-Meier analysis, the cumulative brexpiprazole continuation rate at 180 days was 29 % (estimate: 0.29; 95 % confidence interval, 0.25-0.33). Univariate Cox proportional hazards analysis identified 16 variables independently associated with brexpiprazole discontinuation. Multivariate analysis identified eight variables associated with treatment discontinuation: variables with hazard ratio <1 were the presence of physical complications, longer hospitalization duration, and maximum chlorpromazine-equivalent dose of antipsychotics of >200 to <400 mg/day vs <200 mg/day in the past year; variables with hazard ratio >1 were previous electroconvulsive therapy, availability of key contact person information, a history of crime committed/reported, increase in brexpiprazole dose to 2 mg in >28 days, and appearance/worsening of symptoms other than positive symptoms. In conclusion, we identified potential new factors that may be associated with brexpiprazole discontinuation, which may improve the treatment strategy and continuation rate in patients with schizophrenia.