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Rationing drugs due to insurance concerns

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Let’s face it.  Stocking up on drugs is not an idea that makes your insurance company happy.  But the challenge of having the right drugs on hand at the right time is adding to worldwide migraine pain.

This is actually a study from June 2007, but it’s worth looking at.  Dr. Robert A. Nicholson, assistant professor at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and School of Public Health headed up a study of 233 migraine sufferers who took triptan drugs.  Here’s what he found…

42% of patients said that their insurance plan restricted the number of triptan doses covered each month.  37% said they had a prescription for triptan drugs, but hadn’t filled it because of the cost.

Of those with no limitations, 79% took a triptan at first sign of a migraine attack (as most doctors recommend).  Of those with prescriptions, only 49% took a triptan at the first sign of an attack.  Of those who took a triptan right away, 51% said that migraine had a severe negative impact on their lives.  But of those who hesitated to take the drug, 79% said that migraine had a severe negative impact on their lives.  In fact, one in three of these people ended up in the emergency room at least once in the previous 12 months.

In summary – if someone’s insurance company is limiting their triptans per month, or if cost is keeping people from using them, they have more severe attacks and more frequent visits to the hospital.  Not only does this seem bad for health, it doesn’t seem very cost effective for the insurance company.

The good news is that triptans, when used right away, are working.

One more interesting note.  Dr Nicholson notes that many people delay in taking migraine medication because they want to be sure it’s really a migraine.  Don’t worry, he says.  Statistics show that your first guess is almost always right.

What can we do about this?  Look for another insurance company?  Find other alternative treatments (for when your pills run out)?  What’s your strategy?

Read more:  Insurance, Cost Issues Prevent Many from Treating Migraines

Tonabersat – a new kind of migraine drug

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Back in early 2006 I wrote about a new class of migraine drugs that was in the testing phases.  It’s called a gap junction blocker, and the drug being tested is called tonabersat.  It’s time for an update!

A major phase of the clinical trials have been completed for tonabersat.  The results were encouraging, and reason enough to continue to testing.

At the end of a three month treatment, patients had a 50% better improvement than those on a placebo.  Patients also were able to significantly cut down on the amount of abortives that they were taking (ie painkillers).  In the third month of the study, they took on average 60% less of these other medications.

This is really still in the early testing stages, meaning that there’s still a lot of work to be done to find the best dosages and so forth.  So there’s reason to be optimistic that there will be more significant improvement in future trials.

The research is being continued at the Danish Headache Center under founder Dr. Jes Olesen.  For more, visit the Minister Pharmaceuticals page on Tonabersat.

Frova now an option in Canada

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Frova

Last month a new option was made available to people with migraine in Canada.  That option is another triptan drug – frovatriptan succinate, to be exact, or Frova.

Frova has had its ups and downs.  It has showed some promise particularly for menstrually related migraine.  It was heavily promoted (in a round about way) for menstrual migraine, and so it was quite a blow when, late last year, the American FDA refused to allow it to be labelled as a short term prevention for menstrual migraine.

Still, I take it as a good sign that it’s available in Canada.  In that category of drugs you take when a migraine is coming on (abortives), the triptan drugs have been very helpful.  Not only can they help with headache, they can help with symptoms like nausea.  And not every triptan is helpful for everyone – so the more options available, the better.  If you’ve tried one triptan and haven’t found relief, it’s worth it to try something else.

For more, read the press release about Frova in Canada here.

Excedrin Migraine (and other specific drugs)

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In a recent article, Dr Brent Bauer (director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic) noted that more and more supplements are being marketed to target specific health problems.  As you know, it’s not just supplements, but the mainstream painkillers as well.  Is this good or bad?

Well, it’s helpful to target the exact condition you have – the medication is likely to be more effective.  You don’t want to take medicine for something you don’t have.

But sometimes that can be the problem.  Trisha Brandon, a Consumer Reports tester in the US, was quoted in a recent article:  A lot of over-the-counter medicines often have multiple ingredients to treat several symptoms at once, but you may not need all of those ingredients.

Ok, so it’s important to know what you’re taking and why.  Brandon also says: People are self-diagnosing and they’re sometimes getting it wrong.  Or, they may be taking something that’s too strong for them.

For example, some people may think they have a migraine just because they have a bad headache.  Or, they may take something like Excedrin Migraine for a migraine attack, not realizing it’s specifically targeted to treat headaches from migraine, and not other symptoms.

So it pays to learn about these painkillers – stop and read this recent article about Excedrin Migraine.

Excedrin Migraine

Excedrin Tension Headache

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Excedrin Tension Headache

Novartis is the company, and Excedrin Tension Headache is the brand.  More and more often, companies are trying to market to specific kinds of headaches and pain.  Novartis has also recently come out with Excedrin Back & Body, for example.  Older products such as Quick Tabs Peppermint, marketed more as a general headache treatment, have been discontinued (this is no doubt in part because the Excedrin brand changed hands in 2005; it was formerly owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb).

In light of these changes, and in light of the tremendous popularity of Excedrin products, it’s worth taking a closer look every once in a while.  Although Excedrin Tension Headache and similar products (acetaminophen (paracetamol) and caffeine) are generally considered safe for temporary use with the proper dosage, you do need to be cautious about taking other things at the same time, or if you have certain medical conditions.  The topic of caffeine and painkiller has again been brought up (thanks to Somebody Heal Me and The Daily Headache) for example.

Find out more about Excedrin Tension Headache here.

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Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of each article, and to point you to further sources of information. However, this site is for informational purposes only and should never replace a visit to your doctor.