Health care resource utilization before and after perampanel initiation among patients with epilepsy in the United States

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in health care resource utilization following the initiation of perampanel for the treatment of epilepsy in the United States.

METHODS:

Health care claims from Symphony Health's Integrated Dataverse database between December 2012 and November 2015 were analyzed. Patients newly initiated on perampanel, having ≥1 epilepsy (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] code 345.xx, ICD-10-CM code G40.xxx) or nonfebrile convulsion (ICD-9-CM code 780.39, ICD-10-CM code R56.9) diagnosis, and having ≥6 months of baseline and observation periods were included. Patients <12 years old at perampanel initiation were excluded.>

RESULTS:

Of the 2,508 perampanel patients included in the study, the mean [median] (±standard deviation [SD]) age was 35.8 [34] (±16.0) years and 56.2% were female. The mean [median] (±SD) observation duration was 459.8 [462] (±146.3) days in the postperampanel period. The postperampanel period was associated with significantly lower rates of all health care resource utilization outcomes than the pre-period. For the post- versus pre-period, perampanel users had 42.3 versus 53.8 overall hospitalizations per 100 person-years (rate ratio [RR] = 0.80, p < 0.001) and 1,240.2 versus 1,343.8 outpatient visits per 100 person-years (RR = 0.91, p < 0.001). Epilepsy-related hospitalizations and outpatient visits were 25.2 versus 33.6 per 100 person-years (RR = 0.76, p < 0.001) and 327.0 versus 389.0 per 100 person-years (RR = 0.84, p < 0.001), respectively. Additionally, a significantly lower rate of status epilepticus in the post-period (1.8 events per 100 person-years) was observed compared to the pre-period (4.4 events per 100 person-years; RR = 0.43, p < 0.001). The monthly time trend of hospitalizations showed an increasing trend leading up to the initiation of perampanel, after which the hospitalizations decreased steadily.

SIGNIFICANCE:

Use of perampanel for the treatment of epilepsy was associated with significant reduction in all-cause and epilepsy-related health care resource utilization, including hospitalizations, especially for status epilepticus, and outpatient visits.