PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 275 - 12 Aug 2000

Audit of dyspepsia managementcuts prescribing costs

A well-planned prescribing audit in primary-carepatients with dyspepsia can result in lower drugexpenditure, report investigators based in the UK.

The audit, which involved 7121 patients from 91general practices, resulted in 4843 prescribing changes.1112 of these changes were switches from omeprazole20 mg/day to lansoprazole 15 mg/day, the latter beingconsidered more cost effective for maintenancetreatment. At the end of July 1999, 969 (87%) of thoseswitched to lansoprazole were still receiving the agent.Assuming that switching to lansoprazole providedsatisfactory therapeutic benefit, this prescribing changewas estimated to generate cost savings of about £60 000over an average follow-up period of 21 weeks.

In this audit, the review of dyspepsia management,particularly the prescribing of proton pump inhibitors,was based on British Society of Gastroenterologyguidelines. The audit was conducted between January1997 and July 1999.Cooper AL, et al. Cost-effective prescribing of proton pump inhibitor therapy: anaudit in general practice. International Journal of Clinical Practice 54: 287-292, Jun2000 800833039

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 12 Aug 2000 No. 2751173-5503/10/0275-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved