Prevalence, utilization, and costs of antiepileptic drugs for epilepsy in Germany—a nationwide population-based study in children and adults
- 28 April 2012
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Zeitschrift für Neurologie
- Vol. 259 (11), 2376-2384
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-012-6509-3
Abstract
Nationwide analyses of drug use can provide a prevalence estimate of the underlying disease and can help in understanding the characteristics of treatment. This study aimed for such analyses regarding the utilization of antiepileptic drugs (AED) for epilepsy in Germany. In 2009, all 4,115,705 AED prescriptions of all German patients with statutory health insurance (70,011,508 persons) were retrospectively analyzed. The IMS(®) LRx database served as data source, which accesses nationwide pharmacy data centers processing all German prescription data. To establish the age and sex-specific percentage of patients taking AED because of epilepsy, we used a second database, Disease Analyzer(®), which covered a representative sample of the German population (7.2 million patients) and contained ICD10 codes alongside with prescription data. The period prevalence of patients taking AED because of epilepsy was 9.1/1,000 (children/adolescents: 5.2/1,000; elderly: 12.5/1,000). Of the patients, 83.1 % took at least one of four AED: valproate (29.8 %), carbamazepine (26.4 %), lamotrigine (21.4 %), and levetiracetam (16.9 %). Oxcarbazepine and sultiame were popular with pediatricians. Elderly patients frequently received phenytoin and primidone. More than half of the patients were treated by family physicians; 68 % took AED in monotherapy and 7.9 % received >2 AED (children/adolescents: 12.5 %). The costs for AED prescribed for epilepsy amounted to €285.1 Mio (median AED costs/patient: €158/a). The German 2009 prevalence of epileptic patients taking AED was 9.1/1,000. Family physicians cared for the majority of patients. Prevalence and prescribing patterns changed with age. Costs of AED against epilepsy added up to 1 % of total medication costs in Germany.Keywords
This publication has 44 references indexed in Scilit:
- Incidence and prevalence of epilepsy among older US Medicare beneficiariesNeurology, 2012
- Cost of disorders of the brain in Europe 2010European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2011
- Antiepileptic drugs in Australia: 2002–2007Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, 2009
- The descriptive epidemiology of epilepsy—A reviewEpilepsy Research, 2009
- Utilization and Costs of Antiepileptic Drugs in the ElderlyDrugs & Aging, 2009
- Health and non-health care resources use in the management of adult outpatients with drug-resistant epilepsy in Spain: A cost-of-illness study (LINCE study)Epilepsy Research, 2008
- Prescribing patterns of antiepileptic drugs in Italy: a nationwide population‐based study in the years 2000–2005European Journal of Neurology, 2007
- The SANAD study of effectiveness of valproate, lamotrigine, or topiramate for generalised and unclassifiable epilepsy: an unblinded randomised controlled trialThe Lancet, 2007
- The SANAD study of effectiveness of carbamazepine, gabapentin, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, or topiramate for treatment of partial epilepsy: an unblinded randomised controlled trialThe Lancet, 2007
- Trends in utilization of antiepileptic drugs in DenmarkActa Neurologica Scandinavica, 2006