Treatment benefit correlates with increase of daily drug costs in Parkinson's disease clinics

BACKGROUND There is a move towards treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients in specialized units, however, data on the outcome and on daily antiparkinsonian drug costs are rare. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to elucidate relationships between costs of drug treatment and efficacy of drug titration in a PD clinic. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We calculated costs of drug therapy and scored severity of PD of 63 consecutively referred in-patients initially and at the end of their hospital stay under standardized conditions. RESULTS Titration of antiparkinsonian drugs significantly induced a decrease of PD symptoms and an increase of daily drug costs. There were significant correlations between the degree of (i) improvement of the UPDRS score, (ii) increase of dopaminergic agents and (iii) change of corresponding daily antiparkinsonian drug costs. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of treatment in PD clinics, which results in increased daily antiparkinsonian drug costs due to elevated dopaminergic substitution.