What to Make of Current Policies About Access to Antipsychotic Medications: Short-Term Gain for Long-Term Pain

OPEN MINDS, The Behavioral Health & Social Service Industry Analyst

Industry Analysis

Current medication access policies and practices are intended to produce short-term savings in the medication cost line-item. Experience suggests this effort is largely successful. But the consumer advocacy, professional, and mental health communities have raised the alarm regarding practical though unintended consequences of these policies: much higher long-term costs in the mental health and social service systems as a result of the clinical implications of financially simplistic measures that limit access to antipsychotic medications (and other . . .