Trends in Anticonvulsants Utilization and Expenditures for the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 1999 and 2009. Statistical Brief No. 372.

摘要

Rising health care costs in general and prescribed medicine costs in particular continue to be a concern for U.S. policymakers and consumers of care. Analyzing down total prescription drug costs into therapeutic classes and subclasses provides decision makers and the public with an understanding of the costs and extent to which specific therapeutic classes and subclasses of drugs are contributing to the upturn in total costs. This Statistical Brief provides trends for one therapeutic subclass of prescribed drugsanticonvulsants. This Brief presents trends in utilization and expenditures for outpatient prescription anticonvulsants for the years 1999 and 2009. The estimates are for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population and are derived from the 1999 and 2009 Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC). For outpatient prescription anticonvulsants, the Brief compares, for 1999 and 2009, the number of persons obtaining at least one prescription, total expenditures, and total number of prescriptions, as well as average annual cost per person and average drug cost.