Persistency and treatment failure in newly diagnosed open angle glaucoma patients in the United Kingdom.
OBJECTIVE
To determine utilisation patterns and calculate treatment failure and discontinuation rates in patients with open angle glaucoma treated in the United Kingdom with any of six groups of intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering agents.


METHODS
The UK General Practice Research Database was used to identify newly diagnosed (after 1 January 1997) open angle glaucoma patients who were naive to therapy with any of six index drug groups: carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, latanoprost, miotics, sympathomimetics, timolol, and other (non-timolol) beta blockers. Analyses included drug treatment data for 1 year following diagnosis. Outcomes were (1) time to therapy failure, defined as either change in index drug (replacement or addition of therapy) or patient referral for surgery, and (2) time to therapy discontinuation, defined as either therapy failure or no refill of the index drug in a period twice that covered by the first prescription fill. Cox proportional hazard regression and Kaplan-Meier and life table methods were used to compare groups.


RESULTS
Among the 2001 eligible patients, a beta blocker other than timolol was the most widely prescribed (42%), followed by timolol (32%), carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (10%), and latanoprost (7%). Compared to latanoprost, those treated with any alternative agent were significantly more likely to fail (p < or = 0.005 for each comparison) and to discontinue (p < or = 0.05 for each comparison) therapy. Failure rates ranged from 13% (latanoprost) to 45% (sympathomimetics), and discontinuation rates ranged from 30% (latanoprost) to 63% (miotics).


CONCLUSIONS
Latanoprost treated patients demonstrated lower rates of therapy failure and therapy discontinuation compared with patients treated with other widely used IOP lowering medications, including beta blockers.
Pharmacia Corporation, Pfizer Inc, 100 Route 206 North, Mail Stop 133, Peapack, NJ 07977, USA. Zhiyuan.Zhou@pfizer.com
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Althin
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Sforzolini
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Dhawan
D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000368:Aged; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002257:Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D000077338:Latanoprost; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008916:Miotics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011461:Prostaglandins F, Synthetic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012307:Risk Factors; D013566:Sympathomimetics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013999:Timolol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017211:Treatment Failure
D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents; D002257:Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors; D008916:Miotics; D011461:Prostaglandins F, Synthetic; D013566:Sympathomimetics; D000077338:Latanoprost; D013999:Timolol