Clinical and Economic Correlates of Pharmacotherapy in Patients with Essential Tremor

Essential tremor (ET) is among the most common movement disorders, yet there are few treatment options. Medications have limited efficacy and adverse effects; thus, patients often discontinue pharmacotherapy or take several medications in combination. We evaluated the economic correlates (healthcare resource utilization [HCRU] and costs) and comorbidities among adults with and without ET and among subgroups of patients with ET prescribed 0 to ≥3 ET medications.

This was a retrospective cohort study using claims data from the Merative Market Scan Research Databases (1/1/2017-1/31/2022). Patients were categorized as commercially insured (22-<65 years) or Medicare (≥65 years) and stratified into 3 subgroups: patients with untreated ET, patients with treated ET, and non-ET patients. The index date was the date of first ET diagnosis or a random date (non-ET patients); post-index follow-up was 24 months.

There were 32,984 ET patients (n = 22,641 commercial; n = 10,343 Medicare) and 7,588,080 non-ET patients (n = 7,158,471 commercial; n = 429,609 Medicare). ET patients in both commercial and Medicare populations filled a numerically greater number of unique medications, had a higher numerical prevalence of comorbidities (ie, anxiety, depression, falls), and had numerically greater HCRU and costs than non-ET patients. Most of these numerical trends increased commensurately with increasing number of ET medications.

Compared to non-ET patients, ET patients have higher healthcare costs and utilization, which positively correlated with the number of ET medications. ET patients often have numerically more comorbidities compared to non-ET patients. This analysis demonstrates the medical complexity of ET patients and calls attention to the need for additional therapeutic options.