A Pharmacoepidemiological and Economic Study on the Medicinal Expenses for the Treatment of Colds. Comparison between Modern Drugs and Kampo Medicine.
10.3937/kampomed.50.655
- VernacularTitle:かぜ症候群における薬剤費の薬剤疫学および経済学的検討 漢方薬と西洋薬の経済性における比較研究
- Author:
Tomohide AKASE
;
Tetsuo AKIBA
;
Hideya ISAI
;
Shigetoshi SUZUKI
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Cold;
Kampo medicine;
Economic Study
- From:Kampo Medicine
2000;50(4):655-663
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
-
Abstract:
From December 1997 to February 1998, prescriptions for 875 patients with colds at the three institutions listed were investigated. The prescriptions were divided into three groups according to the nature of the drugs; modern drugs, Kampo medicine and combined use of modern and Kampo medicine. Mean age, the number of prescribed drugs and the days of prescription were checked and the medicinal expenses were calculated. When using only modern drugs, daily expenses were 203.8yen in average. On the other hand, using only Kampo medicine they were 119.6yen. When using combination of modern and Kampo medicine, the expenses reached to 215.9yen. These results indicated that Kampo medicine was the most economical, because using only Kampo medicine made the expenses approximately 60% less than those using only modern drugs. Thus, at least 41.5 billion yen could be saved in 1998 calculating from the market share of the national medical supplies in each therapeutic category. In conclusion, treatment of colds with only Kampo medicine was considered to be the most cost-efficient way.
