Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of benzodiazepine (BZD) on analgesic costs to treat spinal cord injury (SCI) patients in Taiwan. The retrospective cohort study used a subset of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) comprising information on two million beneficiaries randomly sampled from the entire population of Taiwan. A total of 3170 patients aged 16 and above with newly diagnosed SCI were identified during a period from 2001–2010. The multivariate linear regression using average daily costs of prescription of nociceptive pain, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and opioid analgesics for 1 year and 4 years after SCI showed increased costs in benzodiazepine (BZD) user, especially in high-dose BZD users (cumulative defined daily dose [cDDD] > 0.3) (parameter estimate = 3.79 and 1.37 respectively. P -value < 0.05). The multivariate linear regression using average daily costs of prescription of neuropathic pain, including antidepressants and anti-epileptic drugs for the treatment of neuropathic pain for 1 year and 4 years after SCI showed increased costs in BZD user, especially in high-dose BZD users (parameter estimate = 5.95 and 3.85 respectively. P -value < 0.05). This study showed that the baseline BZD exposure may significantly increase the analgesic costs in SCI patients.
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