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Long term benefit of multiple sclerosis treatment: an investigation using a novel data collection technique
Multiple Sclerosis Journal, 06/15/2012
Clinical Article
Conway DS et al. – The results suggest that early treatment (ET) of multiple sclerosis (MS) is beneficial but the effect appears modest.
Methods- The KP was queried for patients with relapsing-remitting MS or secondary progressive MS who were ≥5 years from symptom onset.
- ET was defined as treatment with an approved agent for ≥3 of the first five years after symptom onset.
- Propensity scores for ET were calculated based on early clinical characteristics.
- Patients were divided into propensity score quintiles and linear regression models were constructed to determine the treatment effect sizes and confidence intervals.
- From the 1082 patients that met entry criteria, 453 patients (41.9%) received ET.
- Those patients receiving ET showed significantly better scores on the EQ5D index, PHQ9, and MSPS, but only in the upper three propensity quintiles.
- For the T25FW, ET did not result in significantly better times in any quintile.
