- SEATTLE (UPI) -- Not only
do injections of Botulinum toxin prevent severe chronic headaches and migraines
in a majority of sufferers, but they also turn out to be cheaper than drugs
commonly used for such conditions, researchers reported Saturday.
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- "We looked at a group of patients using our managed-care
program," Dr. Andrew Blumenfeld, chief neurologist at The Kaiser Permanente
Health System in San Diego, Calif., told United Press International.
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- "We used our in-house records to examine their headache-related
pharmacy costs in the six months prior to the initiation of Botox treatment,"
he said. "We compared these figures to the the cost of six months
of Botox treatment. We found that Botox cost less."
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- Blumenfeld and his research team enrolled 50 subjects
from the Kaiser Managed Care Plan. All had been identified by Kaiser pharmacists
as being frequent users of triptans, the most widely prescribed class of
drugs for severe chronic headache and migraine. In order to lower treatment
costs to the plan, they were referred by the pharmacists to the Kaiser
neurology department for a comprehensive headache management program and
Botox injections.
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- Thirty-one of the 50 subjects suffered from mixed-type
headaches caused by migraine, tension and overuse of medications. Eight
suffered from migraines only, eight had chronic tension headaches, one
had severe headaches identified with overuse of medications and two had
headaches of unknown origin.
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- All subjects received two sets of Botox injections, at
the start of the trial and at three months. Because the effect of a set
of Botox injections lasts for three months, two sets covered the six month
active-treatment period of the study.
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- The investigators administered the injections at sites
on the face, head and neck that each patient identified as regions of greatest
pain and discomfort.
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- When they compared the six-month pre-trial triptan drug
costs to injection costs, Botox therapy turned out to be about 30 percent
cheaper to use over the course of a year.
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- "This will have large implications for managed-care
organizations," Blumenfeld said. "Not only do we have patients
who feel better, but we also have a situation where treatment costs for
millions of people can go down instead of up." He called it "a
win-win situation" for both the patient and managed care cost control.
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- "Up to this point, managed care organizations have
appeared to be reluctant to pay for Botox injections for headache (because
the) perception is that Botox is very expensive," Dr. Curtis Schreiber,
neurologist at the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Mo., told UPI.
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- "But the reality appears to be that it is less expensive
than FDA-approved treatments for chronic headache and migraine, for which
managed-care companies are paying every day. So the study takes us one-step
further in demythologizing the cost factor of Botox for headache and giving
some solid comparative figures for managed care organizations to study,"
he said.
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- Botox is made from botulinum toxin, one of the deadliest
poisons known. It operates by deadening nerves. At present, Botox is FDA-approved
for two eye muscle disorders, a neurological disorder causing neck and
shoulder contractions and for several procedures in dermatology.
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rights reserved.
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