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Cost of taking drugs
Fri, 09/14/2007 - 08:57Topic: Complementary Therapies
Out of curiosity, I had a look at the annual Prescription Cost Analysis produced by the National Health Service in the UK. Among other things...
of the 9,000,000+ prescriptions for AEDs given to patients with epilepsy, in 2006, more than 500,000 were given for:
(Number of prescriptions - Average cost per prescription):
CARBAMAZEPINE: - 2,343,000 - £7.27
SODIUM VALPROATE: - 2,010,00 - £11.59
GABAPENTIN: - 1,261,000 - £39.12
PHENYTOIN SODIUM: - 1,040,000 - £2.57
LAMOTRIGINE: - 976,000 - £39.99
(Prescriptions for other AEDs numbered less than 500,000 each)
:Proprietory names for Carbamazipine include Tegretol/Carbatrol
:Proprietory names for Sodium Valproate include Epilim
:Proprietory names for Phenytoin Sodium include Epanutin/Dilantin
:Proprietory names for Lamotrigine include Lamictal
I was curious to know what are the medication costs of having epi in the US - or anywhere else for that matter - and the extent to which the choice of an AED reflected that. In the UK - where I live - the cost of AEDs is heavily subsidised by the government (NHS): drug treatment is usually free for chronic conditions.
If not obvious, there is a huge disparity between the cost of 'old' AEDs and the newer ones, with patents still to expire.
Any thoughts?
Chris
Comments
Re: Cost of taking drugs
Submitted by karend03 on Tue, 2007-09-18 - 07:58
I can't tell you exactly what my AEDs cost, but I can tell you this.
We buy them in bulk because it's less expensive. Even doing that, we still pay about $1200 for a three month supply, and that's after we have met our yearly deductable and the insurance has paid their part. I take 4500 mg of Keppra and 1250 mg of Primidone (generic for Mysoline) daily.
Re: Cost of taking drugs
Submitted by Eternal howl on Fri, 2007-10-05 - 03:21
Hi Scorpio,
I'm not taking AED's at the moment, but here in New Zealand, depending on the drug and if it has been subsidised by our public health system, you may only need to pay $15 for 3 months prescription. This is particularly applicable to the old generation AED's. The newer ones like Lamotrogine (which I have been on was heavily subsidised and you had to seek approval from the National Health Board otherwise it would probably cost around $300 per month or quarter, can't recall which).
If you have a community services card (part of the social welfare system), then your prescriptions may be as low as $3 as they are even more heavily subsidised.
Hope that helps - there's basically a capped rate on most prescriptions (unless they fall outside the normally prescribed ones).
Re: Cost of taking drugs
Submitted by scorpio on Fri, 2007-09-14 - 18:34
Whoops! I meant to put the above in another file. C.