ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to ascertain health care and non-health care resources use in the past 12-months and to estimate the cost-of-illness in adult outpatients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) in Spain. METHODS: A cross-sectional and retrospective study was designed. Whole nation representative participants (epilepsy and general neurological clinics) were selected at random, but patients with drug-resistant epilepsy were included consecutively. We choose the societal perspective to compute total costs for this study. Estimation of costs was calculated by multiplying unitary costs by number of resources used. RESULTS: Seven hundred sixty-two consecutive patients (50.8% males) with mean (S.D.) age of 40.5 (13.5) years were included. Mean total yearly costs were euro6838 (euro8100) with health costs of euro4977 (euro6490), and indirect costs of euro1618 (euro4527). Gender and severity of seizures were significantly associated with costs; higher in males and subjects with severe seizures. Total annual costs showed a trend toward statistical significant association with age (lower costs in older patients), but costs were unrelated with level of care in Epilepsy or general neurological clinics. DISCUSSION: Health care, and to a lesser extend non-health care resources use, were high in patients with DRE in Spain, yielding a considerable burden to both the National Health System and the Society. Better planning of therapeutic strategies allowing alleviation of load and costs of this health problem should be considered from these findings.
