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Triptan overuse in the Dutch general population: A nationwide pharmaco-epidemiology database analysis in 6.7 million people
Cephalalgia, 05/25/2011
Dekker F et al. – In the Dutch general population, 1.3% used a triptan in 2005, of which 10.3% were overusers and accounted for half of the total costs of triptans. Users of frovatriptan, rizatriptan and naratriptan had a lower level of overuse.
Methods- Analysis of the Dutch Health Care Insurance Board Database for 2005, which included prescriptions for 6.7 million people (46% of the total Dutch population).
- Triptans were used by 85,172 (1.3%) people; of these, 8,844 (10.4%; 95% CI 10.2–10.6) were overusers by International Headache Society and 2,787 (3.3%; 95% CI 3.2–3.4) were overusers by stringent criteria.
- The triptan–specific odds ratios for the rate of International Headache Society overuse compared with sumatriptan were: 0.26 (95% CI 0.19–0.36) for frovatriptan; 0.34 (95% CI 0.32–0.37) for rizatriptan; 0.76 95% CI 0.68–0.85) for naratriptan; 0.86 (95% CI 0.72–1.02) for eletriptan; 0.97 (95% CI 0.88–1.06) for zolmitriptan; and 1.49 (95% CI 1.31–1.72) for almotriptan.
- Costs for overuse were 29.7 million euros; for the International Headache Society criteria this was 46% of total costs and for stringent criteria it was 23%.