title: Clinical and economic outcomes of adjunctive therapy with pregabalin or usual care in generalized anxiety disorder patients with partial response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study is done to compare the effect of adjunctive therapy with pregabalin versus usual care (UC) on health-care costs and clinical and patients consequences in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) subjects with partial response (PR) to a previous selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) course in medical practice in Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Post hoc analysis of patients with PR to SSRI monotherapy enrolled in a prospective 6-month naturalistic study was done. PR was defined as a Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale score ≥3 and insufficient response with persistence of anxiety symptoms ≥16 in the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A). Two groups were analyzed: 1) adjunctive therapy (AT) with pregabalin (150-600 mg/day) to existing therapy and 2) UC (switching to a different SSRI or adding another anxiolytic different than pregabalin). Costs included GAD-related health-care resources utilization. Consequences were a combination of psychiatrist-based measurements [HAM-A, CGI, and Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)] and patient-reported outcomes [Medical Outcomes Study Sleep (MOS-sleep) scale, disability (World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHO-DAS II) and quality-of-life (Euro Qol-5D (EQ-5D)]. Changes in both health-care costs and scale scores were compared separately at end-of-trial visit by a general linear model with covariates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four hundred eighty-six newly prescribed pregabalin and 239 UC GAD patients [mean (SD) HAM-A 26.7 (6.9) and CGI 4.1 (0.5)] were analyzed. Adding pregabalin was associated with significantly higher mean (95% CI) score reductions vs. UC in HAM-A [-14.9 (-15.6; -14.2) vs. -11.2 (-12.2; -10.2), p < 0.001] and MADRS [-11.6 (-12.2; -10.9) vs. -7.8 (-8.7; -6.8), p < 0.001]. Changes in all patient-reported outcomes favored significantly patients receiving pregabalin, including quality-of-life gain; 26.4 (24.7; 28.1) vs. 19.4 (17.1; 21.6) in the EQ-VAS, p < 0.001. Health-care costs were significantly reduced in both cohorts yielding similar 6-month costs; €1,565 (1,426; 1,703) pregabalin and €1,406 (1,200; 1,611) UC, p = 0.777. The effect of sex on costs and consequences were negligible.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In medical practice, GAD patients with PR to SSRI experienced greater consequence improvements with adjunctive therapy with pregabalin versus UC, without increasing health-care cost. The effect of pregabalin was independent of patient gender.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Hospital de la Santa Creu i San Pau, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, CiberSam, Carrer Sant Quintí, 89, 08026 Barcelona, Spain.
authors: Enrique
authors: E
authors: Álvarez
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Meixoeiro, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario, Vigo, Spain.
authors: José M
authors: JM
authors: Olivares
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, CiberSam, Madrid, Spain.
authors: José L
authors: JL
authors: Carrasco
authors: Medical Department, Pfizer, S.L.U., Alcobendas, MD Spain.
authors: Vanessa
authors: V
authors: López-Gómez
authors: Health Economics and Outcomes Research Department, Pfizer, S.L.U., Alcobendas, MD Spain.
authors: Javier
authors: J
authors: Rejas
keywords: Cost analysis; Generalized anxiety disorder; Partial response; Pregabalin; Routine medical practice; SSRI; Usual care
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