Publication

Abstract : The primary aim of this study is to compare the antidepressants Venlafaxine and Fluoxetine in terms of their Cost-effectiveness. A prospective, comparative follow-up study was conducted in stroke unit. Sixty randomly selected stroke patients diagnosed with PSD and who met the inclusion criteria were classified into two subgroups with 30 patients each treated with antidepressants fluoxetine and venlafaxine. The HDRS17 was used to assess the effectiveness of the drugs by taking a baseline value at the time of initiation of therapy and followed up regularly at time intervals of 2, 4 and 8 weeks. The economic profiles of both drugs were determined by using cost-effectiveness analysis (ICER and ACER). The efficacy of the drugs was determined using the HDRS17, which showed an improvement in the score from baseline to 8 weeks. While performing cost-effectiveness analysis by comparing the cost and effect of fluoxetine against venlafaxine, incremental cost was positive (19.98) and the incremental effect was negative (-6). While performing the ACER for each drug the value obtained for fluoxetine was 6.02 and 4.96 for venlafaxine. The results of ICER and ACER show that venlafaxine is the cost-effective drug. Economic analysis shows that venlafaxine is the cost-effective drug among venlafaxine and fluoxetine. © International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review and Research. All rights reserved.