Epidural analgesia and intravenous analgesia with opioids are two techniques for providing pain relief for women in labour. Labour pain is comparable to surgical pain in its severity, and epidural analgesia provides better relief from this pain than intravenous analgesia; a meta-analysis...

Background: Costs of inpatient days in hospitals are frequently the main drivers of total treatment costs, and their unit cost can markedly affect the outcomes of an economic evaluation. In many countries, the availability of unit cost data is limited and unit costs are often based on data from...

Background: Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) is widespread in the general population and presents in most cases with heartburn as the main symptom. The severity of symptoms is not necessarily related to erosive damage to the oesophagus due to acid reflux, but the frequency and severity...

Objective: To compare the cost effectiveness of sequential intravenous (IV) to oral ciprofloxacin plus metronidazole (CIP/MTZ IV/PO) with that of IV ciprofloxacin plus IV metronidazole (CIP/MTZ IV) and IV imipenem-cilastatin (IMI IV) in patients with intra-abdominal infections. Design and...

Parallel trade in pharmaceuticals has become a major European Union policy issue with several `solutions' being considered by the European Commission, Member State governments and the pharmaceutical industry in the `Bangemann Process'. This paper discusses the issues from an economic and public...

Depressive illness is a common, often unrecognised and untreated condition with substantial associated costs, particularly indirect costs (e.g. lost productivity and absenteeism). The improved tolerability profile of fluoxetine and associated lower discontinuation rates, the relative safety of...

Objective: To assess the goals, strategic focus, structure, capabilities, activities and effectiveness of health economics (HE) departments in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry, to examine how these have evolved, and the implications of HE in the future of the pharmaceutical industry. Design...

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating illness that causes enormous emotional stress to affected families and is associated with substantial medical and nonmedical costs. Objective: To determine the effects of 28 weeks of memantine treatment for patients with AD on resource...

Pharmacoeconomic fellowship programmes have been in existence for more than 10 years, but their effectiveness has not been evaluated. The aim of this project was to construct a framework to examine the potential outcome measures for pharmacoeconomic fellowships so that the effectiveness of these...

Background: Zanamivir, a neuraminidase inhibitor, reduces the number of days of illness in influenza-positive patients. New bedside rapid flu tests (RFT) should increase the number of influenza-positive patients whom receive zanamivir appropriately. Objective: To estimate the economic effects of...