Health-Care Costs of Pediatric Clients Developing Adverse Events duringTreatment with Antipsychoticsvhe_500 716..722

Objective: To examine the differences over time in health-care costs asso-ciated with incident adverse events in children and adolescents treated with antipsychotic agents compared to an untreated control sample. Method: A retrospective cohort design evaluating South Carolina’s Med-icaid medical and pharmacy claims between January 1996 and December 2005 was employed for 4140 children and adolescents prescribed antip-sychotic medications, and a random sample of 4500 children not treated with psychotropic medications. The main outcome measures were total health-care costs and emergency, inpatient, and outpatient services use. Results: Patients with the focal adverse medical conditions incurred sig-nificantly higher total care costs (34 % higher, on average, over 8–9 years) compared with those without these conditions (F = 710.08; P < 0.0001) or to children not treated with psychotropic medications (F = 2855.54; P < 0.0001). Patients with incident adverse events associated with antip