University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Public Affairs
301 University Boulevard, Suite 136, Galveston, Texas 77555-0802
(409) 772-2618
(800) 228-1841
DATE: May 14, 1999
CONTACT: Tom Curtis, (409) 772-2455; email: [email protected]
EMBARGOED until 3 p.m. E.D.T., May 17, 1999
SOURCE: Robert M.A. Hirschfeld, M.D., reachable through May 17 at (202)582-1234
TAKING MANIA DRUGS REGULARLY FOR BIPOLAR DISORDER REDUCES HOSPITALIZATION COSTS BY THREE-FOLD
GALVESTON, Texas -- Patients suffering from mania who stopped taking their mood-stabilizing medicines ran up medical bills three times larger over the course of a year than did patients who took such drugs regularly for at least three months, medical researchers reported Monday at the 152nd meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Washington, D.C.
The year-long study of more than 200 patients compared the clinical, quality of life and medical costs for those taking lithium and divalproex sodium (DVPX), the two most-often-prescribed drugs for manic-depressive illness, also known as bipolar disorder. The two drugs differ widely in cost. A year's supply of the generic drug lithium is just $40, while an annual prescription for DVPX, sold exclusively by Abbott Laboratories as Depakote, costs $1288. Nonetheless, the total yearly medical costs were $1755 less for patients who started on DVPX compared with those who took lithium. There were no statistically significant differences in clinical symptoms, quality-of-life outcomes or sick days out of work between the two groups.
The higher cost of DVPX was offset by lower hospital costs, the researchers reported. That was because fewer members of the group taking DVPX stopped taking their medication as a result of adverse side effects or lack of effect. "DVPX does have a moderately better side effects profile," said one of the researchers, Robert M.A. Hirschfeld, M.D., chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Total annual medical costs for the DVPX group were $28,911 versus $30,666 for the lithium group.
"But the biggest finding of this research is that patients who took the medicines as prescribed had far fewer hospitalizations than those who did not," Dr. Hirschfeld stressed. "This underscores the effectiveness of these two drugs and also demonstrates how important it is to those with bipolar disorder and to society that they take these medications."
Lithium was the only federally approved drug for mania until the Unites States Food and Drug Administration approved DVPX in May 1995. Last year DVPX surpassed lithium to become the drug most prescribed by psychiatrists for treating mania associated with bipolar disorder.
More than 2 million Americans suffer from bipolar disorder, a disease involving severe mood swings consisting of alternating cycles of mania and depression. A manic episode is a distinct and persistent period of abnormally elevated, expansive or elevated mood. Typical symptoms of mania are an increased tendency or urge to talk, motor hyperactivity, reduced need for sleep, rapid profusion of ideas, grandiosity, poor judgement, aggressiveness and possible hostility.
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