• Ariel Berger, Alesia Sadosky, Ellen Dukes, John Edelsberg, and Gerry Oster.
• Policy Analysis Inc., Brookline, MA 02445, USA.
• Bmc Neurol. 2012 Jan 1;12:8.

BackgroundClinical characteristics and patterns of healthcare utilization in patients with painful neuropathic disorders (PNDs) who are under the care of general practitioners (GPs) in the UK are not well understood.MethodsUsing a large electronic UK database, we identified all adults (age ≥ 18 years) with any GP encounters between 1 January 2006-31 December 2006 at which a diagnosis of PND was noted ("PND patients"). An age-and gender-matched comparison group also was constituted consisting of randomly selected patients with one or more GP encounters-but no mention of PNDs-during this period. Characteristics and patterns of healthcare utilization of patients in the two groups were then examined over the one-year study period.ResultsThe study sample consisted of 31,688 patients with mention of PNDs and an equal number of matched comparators; mean age was 56 years, and 62% were women. The prevalence of various comorbidities was higher among patients in the PND group, including digestive disorders (31% vs. 17% for comparison group), circulatory disorders (29% vs. 22%), and depression (4% vs. 3%) (all p < 0.01). Receipt of prescriptions for pain-related pharmacotherapy also was higher among PND patients, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (56% of PND patients had one or more such prescriptions vs. only 22% in the comparison group), opioids (49% vs. 12%), tricyclic antidepressants (20% vs. 1%), and antiepileptics (12% vs. 1%) (all p < 0.01). PND patients also averaged significantly more GP visits (22.8 vs. 14.2) and referrals to specialists (2.8 vs. 1.4) over one year (both comparisons p < 0.01).ConclusionsPatients with PNDs under the care of GPs in the UK have relatively high levels of use of healthcare services and pain-related pharmacotherapy.

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