Comparison of scores derived from the box score-11 scale and the pain attribute of the health utilities index-3.

Background: Pain is widespread, but has not yet been the focus of measurement in terms of patient preferences. This type of measure is needed for pharmacoeconomic analyses of pain medications.

Objective: Our objective was to compare scores from the Box Score (BS)-11 scale and the pain attribute of the Health Utilities Index (HUI)-3.

Willingness to pay for a treatment for pain in multiple sclerosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disease that affects 240 per 100 000 Canadians. Of these patients, 10-80% (average 70%) experience pain. Sativex is a cannabis-based drug recently approved for neuropathic pain.

Pain due to multiple sclerosis: analysis of the prevalence and economic burden in Canada.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease affecting approximately 50,000 Canadians. Although studies have described overall MS costs, none have focused specifically on MS-related pain.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of MS-related pain in Canada, the proportion of patients treated and responding to treatment for MS-related pain, and the associated economic burden.

Impact of administrative restrictions on antibiotic use and expenditure in Ontario: time series analysis.

Objective: In a potential attempt to guide antibiotic prescribing based on current clinical evidence and mitigate the spread of antibiotic resistance, in March 2001 the Ontario Drug Benefit programme restricted reimbursement of two fluoroquinolone antibiotics--ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin--to its beneficiaries. Our objective was to determine the impact of this policy on the volume and cost of antibiotic prescribing.

Method: Weekly administrative data on antibiotic prescribing volumes and expenditures were analysed between January 1999 and September 2002 to estimate the effect of the policy changes using time series analysis.

Resistance to antibiotics: administrative response to the challenge.

The authors discuss antibiotic resistance within a conceptual framework that illustrates the dynamic relationships among antibiotic, patient, and population factors. The complexity of these interactions makes it unlikely that any single intervention or approach will adequately address the problem of increasing rates of antibiotic resistance. A case study focused on Streptococcus pneumoniae in the context of community-acquired pneumonia provides a detailed examination of the manner in which antibiotic use, expenditures, and microbial resistance are affected by an administrative reimbursement restriction implemented by a single government payer.