THE COST OF TREATMENT FOR POSTHERPETIC NEURALGIA IN THE UK

Post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) following acute shingles caused by the h erpes simplex virus is a painful and often disabling condition. Treatm ent of the condition can involve a range of drug therapies. In additio n, patients with continuing pain may make several visits to general pr actitioners and hospital outpatient departments, The costs of treatmen t for these patients may be substantial.The main objective of this stu dy was to estimate the costs and consequences to the UK National Healt h Service (NHS) of the treatment of PHN following shingles, and the ef fect of the condition on patients' lives in terms of pain and time off usual activities such as work. The lifetime direct treatment costs of a cohort of people from onset of PHN to resolution of the disease or death were calculated. These costs were estimated from data on the typ e and quantity of health resources used, and the unit costs or prices of those resources. This study has shown that PHN can be a costly cons equence of acute shingles. For patients attending a tertiary referral centre the lifetime cost was 770 Pound. For a 1-year incidence cohort of people with shingles in the UK, the lifetime costs of treating PHN are between 4.8 Pound million (incidence of 21 000 people) and 17.9 Po und million (incidence of 78 200 people). Efforts are needed to reduce the incidence or severity of PHN. If antiviral therapy can be shown t o reduce this incidence, the costs estimated in this study should form part of the overall cost-benefit equation for the treatment of acute shingles.