Cost Effectiveness of Quetiapine in Bipolar Depression
2012
This article, published in Pharmacoeconomics, presents a discrete event simulation model to investigate the cost-effectiveness of quetiapine compared with olanzapine in patients with acute bipolar depression and in maintenance treatment after an acute depressive episode in the UK. The following events are possible in the model: stable patient (remission), depressive episode, manic episode and mortality. A patient will move to a next event based on time-to-event functions. The analysis is conducted from the societal perspective over a 5-year time horizon.
Results indicate that 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 is a cost-effective strategy compared with olanzapine 15 mg/day (both are typical daily doses). 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 £8,600 per QALY gained.
Based on these findings the authors conclude that quetiapine is cost-effective as a maintenance treatment for bipolar depression considering a threshold of £20,000-30,000 per QALY.
Cost Effectiveness of Quetiapine in Bipolar Depression
Source:
Ekman M, Lindgren P, Miltenburger C et al. Cost Effectiveness of Quetiapine in Patients with Acute Bipolar Depression and in Maintenance Treatment after an Acute Depressive Episode. PharmacoEconomics 2012; 30 (6): 513-530. http://doi.org/10.2165/11594930-000000000-00000