Systematic review of the pharmacoeconomics of Parkinson disease medications

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) causes progressive motor symptoms including tremor, rigidity, and bradykinesia, along with non-motor symptoms such as dementia, orthostatic hypotension, and depression. Over time, PD can lead to falls, disability, institutionalization, and caregiver burden. Its treatment is symptomatic and can be associated with high costs.

Areas covered: The authors performed a literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library Current for English language PD pharmacoeconomic evaluations starting from 1 January 2000. The authors found 26 papers covering treatment of motor symptoms (n = 24), dementia (n = 1), and orthostatic hypotension (n = 1). The scope of literature was limited in that there were few articles overall.

Expert opinion: Overall, the authors found a scarcity of primary PD pharmacoeconomic literature in the 21st Century. Given the myriad of PD motor and non-motor treatments, only 24 papers evaluating motor treatments and two papers evaluating non-motor treatments met our search criteria. More studies are clearly needed to better define the pharmacoeconomics of PD therapeutics.

KEYWORDS:

• Parkinson disease
• pharmacoeconomics
• cost-effectiveness analysis
• cost-utility analysis
• cost-minimization analysis
• cost-benefit analysis
• economic models

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Article Highlights

• PD is a prevalent neurological condition, and its treatment incurs a large medical and societal cost

• The scope of pharmacoeconomic literature in PD since 2000 is limited, particularly for the treatment of non-motor features of PD

• Most of the studies that met our inclusion criteria were industry funded, and a majority of results favored cost-effectiveness of the product being studied

• Modeled cost analyses can be problematic because adjustment of the parameters that are studied can lead to differing results

• There is little standardization in health utility values within the context of PD

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This manuscript was not funded.