Exploring Patient Experiences Taking Adjunctive Brexpiprazole for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD): Post-hoc Analysis of Exit Interview Data

Background: The efficacy and safety of adjunctive brexpiprazole, a serotonin–dopamine activity modulator, has been demonstrated in clinical studies in adults with MDD and inadequate response to antidepressant treatments. Here, we analyze brexpiprazole exit interview data by looking at a four-domain conceptual framework of patient engagement: physical (i.e., energy), emotional (i.e., affect/mood), social (i.e., interest), and cognitive (i.e., alertness/thinking) domains.

Methods: 105 semi-structured exit telephone interviews were conducted. Participants were asked about their symptoms prior to entering the clinical studies, and about improvements observed with treatment. Transcripts from the interviews were reviewed to assign codes related to each of the four domains investigated, allowing aggregate examination of frequencies of improvements in each domain.

Results: The majority of the patients referenced improvements consistent with one, two, three, or all four of the domains (11.4%, 27.6%, 34.3%, and 15.2%, respectively). Improvements in physical and emotional domains were reported by 75.2% and 77.1% of patients, while 41.9% and 36.2% reported improvements in social or cognitive domains. The most frequently overlapping domains were the emotional and physical domains.

Conclusion: Exit interviews provide insight into patients’ perspective and directly document patients’ experience with a treatment. This type of data may complement clinical data obtained from clinical studies. In these interviews, nearly 90% of patients receiving adjunctive brexpiprazole experienced improvement in one or more of four domains of patient engagement suggesting a benefit of brexpiprazole beyond the improvement on the depressive symptoms as measured by clinical scales.

This poster was presented at the 32nd annual Psych Congress, held Oct. 3-6, 2019, in San Diego, California.