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Biomedical subjects

Marc I Rosen

Publications and source records attributed to Marc I Rosen.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

Does assigning a representative payee reduce substance abuse?

BACKGROUND: Approximately 700,000 Social Security beneficiaries in the U.S. with psychiatric disabilities have been assigned a representative payee to manage their funds but it is unclear how those judged to need a payee differ from others and whether payee assignment improves clinical outcomes, especially substance abuse. METHODS: Participants in this observational 12-month cohort study (n=1457) received SSI or SSDI and had serious mental illness. They were subsequently enrolled at eighteen community-based sites that provided Assertive Community Treatment. Social Security administrative records were used to determine whether a payee had been assigned. RESULTS: At baseline, participants who were assigned a payee were more likely to have schizophrenia and had more severe clinician-rated drug and alcohol use than those not assigned a payee. In GEE models that adjusted for these and other potentially confounding covariates, participants assigned a payee between 4 and 12 months after program entry subsequently used significantly more psychiatric services than participants not assigned payees but showed no greater reduction in substance use. CONCLUSIONS: Although substance use is associated with being assigned a payee, substance use does not decline substantially following payee assignment. Participants assigned payees made greater subsequent use of psychiatric services, suggesting the potential for benefit from payee assignment.

Adult↗

Effect of Social Security payments on substance abuse in a homeless mentally ill cohort.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether receipt of social supplemental security income (SSI) or Social Security disability income (SSDI) disability payments is associated with increased drug and alcohol use. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Secondary analysis of data from 6,199 participants in the Access to Community Care and Effective Social Supports and Services demonstration for the homeless mentally ill. DESIGN: Observational, 12-month, cohort study completed over 4 years. Substance abuse and other outcomes were compared between the participants who did not receive SSI or SSDI during the 12-month study, those newly awarded benefits, and those without benefits throughout the 12 months. DATA COLLECTION METHODS: Social Security administrative records were used to corroborate Social Security benefit status. Drug and alcohol use were measured by self-report and clinician ratings. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Participants who did not receive benefits significantly reduced their substance use over time. In generalized estimating equations models that adjusted for potentially confounding covariates, participants who newly received Social Security benefits showed no greater drug use than those without benefits but had significantly more days housed and fewer days employed. Participants whose benefits antedated the demonstration and continued during the 12 months had more clinician-rated drug use over time than those without benefits. CONCLUSIONS: In this vulnerable population, participants with newly awarded benefits did not have any different drug use changes than those without benefits, and had relatively more days housed. The hypothesis that Social Security benefits facilitate drug use was not supported by longitudinal data in this high-risk population.

Adult↗

A comparison of satisfaction with clinician, family members/friends and attorneys as payees.

Clients disabled by psychiatric illness may be assigned mental health clinicians as payees. We compared client-payee interactions among 42 clients with clinician-payees, 20 whose payees were family or friends and nine with attorney-payees. Compared to clients with attorney-payees, clients with clinician-payees felt more satisfied and more involved in their money management, and had had more contacts with their payees in the previous month. Clients' satisfaction with family/friend payees was similar to that with clinician payees. In multivariate analyses, whether or not the payee had had training about mental illness accounted for 33% of the variance in satisfaction with the payee.

Adult↗

Electronic monitoring and counseling to improve medication adherence.

Electronic caps, pill caps that record the date and time of pill bottle opening provide an objective measure of adherence to prescribed medication. A promising intervention to improve adherence, cue-dose training, involves reviewing patients' pill cap-generated reports concerning their medication-taking and offering individualized recommendations for remembering to take medications at specific times of day. In this preliminary study, 79 patients prescribed the antihyperglycemic medication metformin had adherence assessed during a 4-week baseline period. Adherence, defined as proportion of prescribed doses taken within a predetermined 4-h window, was measured using electronic MEMS caps. Those who had less than 80% baseline adherence (n = 33) were randomly assigned to either receive 4 months of cue-dose training (n = 16) or to a control group (n = 17). Cue-dose training was associated with significantly better adherence to metformin (mean improvement of 15%). The effects of cue-dose training on adherence to other antihyperglycemic medication did not reach statistical significance. Glycosylated hemoglobin (a measure of blood sugar control) did not differ between groups. Data from nine patients who reviewed pill cap-generated data with their primary care providers suggested that both patients and providers found the discussion moderately helpful and not at all uncomfortable.

Cues↗

Neuropsychological correlates of suboptimal adherence to metformin.

The goal of this study was to determine if neuropsychological function is associated with adherence to prescribed medication. Altogether, 79 patients with type II diabetes at a VA primary care clinic had adherence to the antihyperglycemic drug metformin measured with MEMS caps over a 4-week period. They completed several tests of neuropsychological function: Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE), Trails A and B, Stroop, Digit Span, Digit Symbol, and Grooved Pegboard. In separate multivariate analyses, Stroop word score and time to complete Trails B were independently associated with adherence, as was age. Secondary analyses of the relationship between neuropsychological variables and other adherence-related measures were conducted. Low scores on the MMSE and non-Caucasian ethnicity were associated with missed appointments. None of the neuropsychological variables were associated with glycosylated hemoglobin. These results suggest that cognitive abilities should be considered when counseling patients concerning their adherence.

Adult↗

Do patients who mismanage their funds use more health services?

One rationale for establishing programs that help patients manage their funds is that such patients make extensive use of expensive inpatient services. We surveyed the money management habits of 406 inpatients and determined their use of Veterans Administration (VA) services and related costs over the subsequent year. In multivariate analyses, there was no statistically significant relationship between need for money management and service use or cost. The misspending of funds for drugs may precipitate hospitalization for some outpatients. However, in a sample of hospitalized patients, mismanagement of funds was not associated with longer length of stay or increased service use following discharge.

Case Management↗

Payee relationships: institutional payees versus personal acquaintances.

Most patients' payees are friends or family members, but quantitative evaluations of patients' experience of payeeship published thus far have involved patients whose payees were mental health staff. We compared ratings of different aspects of payeeship among veterans whose payees were family or friends (n = 27) and among those with institutional payees (lawyers, accountants, or clinic-affiliates, n = 22). After adjusting for differences in sociodemographic characteristics, the two groups had small and statistically non-significant differences on measures of their interaction with their payees. Overall satisfaction with payees and trust in them was high.

Accounting↗

Substance abuse and the need for money management assistance among psychiatric inpatients.

Patients who mismanage their funds may benefit from financial advice, case management or the involuntary assignment of a payee who restricts direct access to funds. Data from a survey of psychiatric inpatients at four VA hospitals (N = 236) was used to evaluate the relationship between substance abuse and clinician-rated need for money management assistance. Multivariate analytic techniques were used to control for sociodemographic factors and psychopathology. Alcohol and drug use severity both were modestly associated with need for assistance. The effect of substance use severity was greater in patients who were also diagnosed with a major mental illness. Clinicians indicated that 27 patients (11% of the sample) required an involuntary payee and 21 of the 27 (78%) had a Substance Abuse diagnosis. Only drug use severity was significantly associated with need for a payee. These data describe a substantial unmet need for money management assistance in psychiatric inpatients, particularly among those with substance abuse disorders. There is a need to examine the process by which the Social Security and Veterans Benefits Administrations assign payees to determine whether patients with co-morbid substance abuse are not being assigned a payee in spite of their discernible need for one.

Confidence Intervals↗

Veterans who may need a payee to prevent misuse of funds for drugs.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine the possible need for a payee among Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatients with substance use disorders who receive public support payments. METHODS: A total of 290 veterans hospitalized in VA psychiatric units completed a survey designed to identify patients who may be in need of a payee because of excessive expenditures for substances of abuse. Level 1 screening identified patients with a general likelihood of needing a payee because they received public support payments, did not have a payee, and had a substance abuse diagnosis. Level 2 screening identified level 1 patients for whom there was further evidence of need for a payee because, in addition to spending substantial amounts of money on substances of abuse, they reported either difficulty meeting basic material needs or substantial harm from substance use. RESULTS: Of 290 patients surveyed, 78 (27 percent) met level 1 criteria. Altogether, 35 patients (45 percent of level 1 patients and 13 percent of all surveyed patients) met the more specific level 2 criteria, indicating that they were likely to be in need of a payee. As expected, veterans who met the level 2 criteria were more likely than those meeting only the level 1 criteria to have both self-rated and clinician-rated difficulties managing money. However, clinicians did not rate these veterans as more likely to benefit from a payee. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of veterans who have not been assigned a payee may need one. More effective approaches to money management in this population are needed.

Capital Expenditures↗

Effects of illicit drug use on adherence to prescribed antiretroviral medication.

This exploratory analysis compared adherence to antiretroviral medication on days that illicit drugs were used and on matched abstinence days in twelve subjects who used MEMS caps during participation in a clinical trial. Adherence on drug use days was lower in seven subjects, higher in one, and the same in four. Three subjects maintained 100% adherence despite illicit substance use on studied days. Thus, in a subset of patients, the actions involved in procuring drugs and the acute effects of using them contribute to non-adherence on those specific drug use days, associated with substance abuse. (Am J Addict 2003;12:455-458)

Adult↗