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Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on June 6, 2005
Alcohol and Alcoholism, doi:10.1093/alcalc/agh171
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Medical Council on Alcohol. All rights reserved
Received January 31, 2005
Revised April 27, 2005
Accepted April 28, 2005

Article

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF PHARMACOECONOMIC STUDIES OF ACAMPROSATE

FLAVIO POLDRUGO 1*, DORIS-ANITA HAEGER 2, SYLVIE COMTE 2, JAN WALBURG 3, and ANDREW J. PALMER 4

1 Office for Research and Innovative Projects on Alcohol, Other Addictions and Mental Health, Departments of Psychiatry and Addiction, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
2 Merck Santé, Lyon, France
3 Jellinek Klinikum, 1001 AS Amsterdam, Netherlands
4 CORE Center for Outcomes Research, BASEL, Switzerland

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
FLAVIO POLDRUGO, E-mail: polydrug{at}units.it


  Abstract

Aims: This review assessed the published data on the cost-effectiveness of acamprosate for the treatment of alcohol dependence. Methods: Four Markov modelling studies have assessed the therapeutic benefit and economic impact of acamprosate on the treatment of alcohol dependence. These have evaluated both short-term and long-term outcomes and have used German, Belgian, and Spanish costings. A fifth prospective cohort study collected real outcomes and data on expenditure during a 1 year study followup period. Results: All five studies have produced consistent results, showing the use of acamprosate, which enhances abstinence rates, to reduce the total costs of treatment and thus be dominant over other rehabilitation strategies not involving pharmacotherapy. In all of the studies, the principal cost-driver is hospitalization. Although there is a short-term increase in treatment costs associated with drug acquisition, these are recovered from long-term savings attributable to reduced hospitalization and rehabilitation costs.


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