Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government
Veterans Benefits and Health Care About VA Find a VA Location

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR&D Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Psychopharmacologic Services for Homeless Veterans: Comparing Psychotropic Prescription Fills Among Homeless and Non-Homeless Veterans with Serious Mental Illness.

Hermes E, Rosenheck R. Psychopharmacologic Services for Homeless Veterans: Comparing Psychotropic Prescription Fills Among Homeless and Non-Homeless Veterans with Serious Mental Illness. Community mental health journal. 2016 Feb 1; 52(2):142-7.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions


Abstract:

Using national Veterans Health Administration (VHA) administrative data, this study evaluated differences in psychotropic medication use between homeless and non-homeless adults with serious mental illness (SMI) who used VHA services in 2010. The adjusted mean number of psychotropic prescription fills associated with homeless individuals were identified using regression models adjusted for socio-demographics, diagnoses, and use of health services. Of the 876,989 individuals with SMI using VHA services, 7.2 % were homeless at some time during 2010. In bivariate analysis, homeless individuals filled more psychotropic medication prescriptions compared with non-homeless individuals. However, after adjusting for potentially confounding variables, homeless individuals were found to have filled 16.2 % fewer prescriptions than non-homeless individuals when all psychotropics were analyzed together (F  =  6947.1, p  <  .001) and for most individual classes of psychotropics. Greater use of residential/inpatient mental health services by the homeless was the most important single factor associated with filling more psychotropic prescriptions than non-homeless individuals.




Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.