Cost Effectiveness of Quetiapine in Patients with Acute Bipolar Depression and in Maintenance Treatment after an Acute Depressive Episode
PharmacoEconomics, 05/23/2012
Clinical Article
Ekman M et al. – Compared with olanzapine, the results suggest that quetiapine is cost effective as a maintenance treatment for bipolar depression.
Methods- Probabilities of remission and relapse were obtained from clinical trial data and meta–analyses.
- Costs (year 2011 values) were assessed from a UK healthcare payer's perspective, and included pharmacological therapy and resource use associated with the treatment of mood events and selected adverse events.
- The health effects were measured in terms of QALYs.
- For a patient starting with acute depression or in remission at 40 years of age (which was the average age in the clinical trials), quetiapine 300 mg/day was a cost–effective strategy compared with olanzapine 15 mg/day over a 5–year time frame.
- With acute bipolar depression as a starting episode, the 5–year medical costs were £323 higher and QALYs were 0.038 higher for quetiapine compared with olanzapine, corresponding to a cost–effectiveness ratio of £8600 per QALY gained.
