Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University School of Medicine Report Findings in Dibenzocycloheptenes (Patterns of health…

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University School of Medicine Report Findings in Dibenzocycloheptenes (Patterns of health care utilization related to initiation of amitriptyline, duloxetine, gabapentin, or pregabalin ...)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Immunotherapy Weekly -- Fresh data on Dibenzocycloheptenes are presented in a new report. According to news reporting originating from Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "Several pharmacologic treatments are available for fibromyalgia, but little is known about the comparative effectiveness of these treatments on health care utilization. Using US commercial insurance claims data (covering 2007 to 2009), we conducted a cohort study to examine the comparative effectiveness of amitriptyline, duloxetine, gabapentin, and pregabalin on health care utilization in patients with fibromyalgia."

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University School of Medicine, "We measured patients' medication adherence using the proportion of days covered (PDC) and estimated multivariable rate ratios (RRs) for outpatient visits, prescriptions, hospitalization, and emergency department (ED) visits in propensity score (PS)-matched cohorts. Cohorts of 8,269 amitriptyline, 9,941 duloxetine, and 18,613 gabapentin initiators were compared with their PS-matched pregabalin initiators. During the baseline 180-day period, patients had, on average, seven to nine physician visits, including six to eight specialist visits, and received eight prescription drugs. The mean PDC up to 180 days varied from 38.6% to 67.7%. The number of outpatient visits, prescriptions, and hospitalizations decreased slightly after initiating one of the study drugs, but the number of ED visits increased after treatment initiation. Compared to pregabalin, duloxetine was associated with decreased outpatient visits (RR, 0.94; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.88 to 1.00), prescriptions (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.90 to 0.98), hospitalizations (RR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.68 to 0.83), and ED visits (RR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.79 to 0.91). Little difference in health care utilization rates was noted among amitriptyline and gabapentin initiators compared to those who were started on pregabalin. Fibromyalgia patients had high health care utilization before and after initiation of amitriptyline, duloxetine, gabapentin, or pregabalin. Medication adherence was suboptimal."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Overall, fibromyalgia treatment had little impact on reducing health care utilization, but duloxetine initiators had less health care utilization than those started on pregabalin."

For more information on this research see: Patterns of health care utilization related to initiation of amitriptyline, duloxetine, gabapentin, or pregabalin in fibromyalgia. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 2015;17():18. Arthritis Research & Therapy can be contacted at: Biomed Central LTD, Middlesex House, 34-42 Cleveland St, London W1T 4LB, England. (BioMed Central - www.biomedcentral.com/; Arthritis Research & Therapy - arthritis-research.com/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting S.C. Kim, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 1620 Tremont St, Suite 3030, Boston, MA, 02120, United States. Additional authors for this research include J.E. Landon and Y.C Lee (see also Dibenzocycloheptenes).

Publisher contact information for the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy is: Biomed Central LTD, Middlesex House, 34-42 Cleveland St, London W1T 4LB, England.

Keywords for this news article include: Boston, Massachusetts, United States, Amitriptyline, Dibenzocycloheptenes, North and Central America.

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