Treatment patterns associated with duloxetine and venlafaxine use for major depressive disorder Full Text
BMC Psychiatry, 02/03/2011
Clinical Article
Ye W et al. – This study addresses whether duloxetine and venlafaxine XR are interchangeable in their patterns of use with patients who are depressed or are used more selectively based on treatment history, background characteristics, and presenting symptoms.
Methods- Patients with MDD treated with duloxetine tended to have more complex and costly antecedent clinical presentation compared with venlafaxine XR patients, suggesting that physicians do not use medications interchangeably
- Patients with MDD treated with duloxetine (n = 9,641) versus venlafaxine XR (n = 8,514) tended to be older, slightly more likely to be female, and treated by a psychiatrist (P < 0.0001)
- In prior year, more duloxetine patients (vs. venlafaxine XR) received [greater than or equal to]3 unique antidepressants (20.8% vs. 16.6%), [greater than or equal to]3 unique pain medications (25.5% vs. 15.6%), and had [greater than or equal to]8 unique diagnosed comorbid medical and psychiatric conditions (38.6% vs. 29.1%)
- Prior 6-month total health care costs $1,731 higher for duloxetine than for venlafaxine XR and declined for both medications in 6 months after treatment began
- Logistic regression analysis revealed that 61% of duloxetine patients and 61% of venlafaxine XR patients predictable from prior patient and treatment factors
