Impact of Chorea on Self-care Activity, Employment, and Health-care Resource Use in Patients with Huntington's Disease.

Chorea is recognized as a prototypic motor feature of Huntington's disease (HD), but its effect on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has not been fully explored. This study describes the impact of chorea on HRQoL in patients with HD. To determine the impact of HD-related chorea on employment, self-care activities, activities of daily living, and health-care resource utilization (HCRU).

Tetrabenazine Treatment Patterns and Outcomes for Chorea Associated with Huntington Disease: A Retrospective Chart Review.

Background: Huntington disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor impairments (including chorea), along with behavioral, psychiatric, and cognitive symptoms. Tetrabenazine was the first US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for chorea related to HD.

Objective: To examine pharmacologic treatment patterns among patients using tetrabenazine, including reasons for treatment initiation, non-initiation, dose adjustments, and discontinuation, and to quantify the burden of chorea based on healthcare resource utilization.

Understanding How Chorea Affects Health-Related Quality of Life in Huntington Disease: An Online Survey of Patients and Caregivers in the United States.

Background: Chorea is the hallmark motor feature of Huntington disease (HD) and can negatively impact daily functioning and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate how chorea impacts HRQoL and overall functioning among HD patients participating on the PatientsLikeMe website ( www.PatientsLikeMe.

Physician perceptions of pharmacologic treatment options for chorea associated with Huntington disease in the United States.

Objective: To survey neurologists and obtain clinical perceptions of tetrabenazine for the treatment of chorea in patients with Huntington disease (HD).

Methods: Board-certified/board-eligible neurologists, in practice for ≥5 years, who had treated treat ≥3 HD patients in the past 2 years, were recruited from an online physician panel to participate in a cross-sectional, web-based survey. Respondents provided information about themselves, their practice, approaches to HD chorea management and perceptions of available treatments.

Retrospective Analysis of Healthcare Resource Use, Treatment Patterns, and Treatment-related Events in Patients with Huntington's Disease-associated Chorea Initiated on Tetrabenazine.

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is a multifaceted neurodegenerative disorder characterized by involuntary movements, specifically chorea, as well as behavioral and psychiatric disturbance, and cognitive dysfunction. Tetrabenazine was the first approved treatment for chorea, although tolerability concerns exist.

Objectives: To characterize demographic and clinical characteristics of HD patients with chorea based on tetrabenazine use and examine treatment persistence with tetrabenazine in a real-world setting.

Patient and parent preferences for immunoglobulin treatments: a conjoint analysis.

Objectives: The purpose was to quantify patient and parent preferences for administration attributes of immunoglobulin (IG) treatments; and determine which administration attributes were most important to users of IG treatment and whether patients and parents have similar preferences for administration attributes.

Methods: US adult patients and parents of children with a self-reported physician diagnosis of a primary immunodeficiency disorder completed a best-practice web-enabled choice-format conjoint survey that presented a series of 12 choice questions, each including a pair of hypothetical IG-treatment profiles. After reviewing current therapies, each profile was defined by mode of administration, frequency, location, number of needle sticks, and treatment duration.

Pain documentation and predictors of analgesic prescribing for elderly patients during emergency department visits.

Context: Inappropriate pain documentation is likely to be an important contributor to the poor management of pain in elderly patients in the emergency department (ED). Failure to assess pain limits ability to treat pain.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to examine the relationship between visit characteristics of elderly patients and pain score documentation in the ED, and to determine predictors of analgesic use in the ED.

The variation in patient care rendered by physicians and nonphysician clinicians in an ambulatory care setting.

This study compared three medical care services provided by a physician, a nonphysician clinician (NPC), and an NPC with a physician in ambulatory settings while measuring the trend in patients with essential hypertension and allergic rhinitis seen by these clinicians for the years 1999 through 2006. Multivariate analysis of variance and Z-test were used to analyze the data, while post hoc comparisons were performed using Scheffe test. There was a significant increase in the proportion of patients seen by an NPC with a physician for both diagnoses compared with the other two types of clinicians.