Sacristán J A, Soto J
Health Economics Department, Lilly S.A., Madrid, Spain.
Pharmacoeconomics. 1994 Apr;5(4):299-312. doi: 10.2165/00019053-199405040-00005.
Drug utilisation and many pharmacoeconomic studies use pharmacoepidemiological methods characterised by the study of drugs from a socioeconomic perspective. Drug utilisation studies may be defined as studies of the marketing, distribution, prescription and use of drugs in a society, with special emphasis on the resulting medical, social and economic consequences. Pharmacoeconomic studies are used to measure drug efficiency, through comparison of the costs and effects of alternative therapies. Drug utilisation studies can provide highly valuable information, at a reasonable price, on the costs and effects (harmful and beneficial) of drugs. Such studies make available much useful information including indirect data on morbidity, the pharmaceutical component of the treatment cost of an illness, therapeutic compliance, the incidence of adverse reactions, the effectiveness of drug consumption and the choice of comparators. This information can be of great use in the subsequent elaboration of pharmacoeconomic studies, or in the selection of problematic areas in which these studies may be applied. Pharmacoeconomic studies, in turn, can be used to discover the economic repercussions of inappropriate prescribing and to quantify the cost effectiveness of various therapeutic interventions. The use of drug utilisation studies in conjunction with pharmacoeconomic analysis can result in more cost effective utilisation of medicines and a better utilisation of pharmacoeconomic methods, both of which contribute to a more rational use of drugs.
药物利用研究以及许多药物经济学研究采用了药物流行病学方法，其特点是从社会经济角度对药物进行研究。药物利用研究可定义为对一个社会中药物的营销、分销、处方和使用情况的研究，特别强调由此产生的医学、社会和经济后果。药物经济学研究用于通过比较替代疗法的成本和效果来衡量药物疗效。药物利用研究能够以合理的成本提供有关药物成本和效果（有害和有益）的极有价值的信息。此类研究可提供许多有用信息，包括发病率的间接数据、疾病治疗成本中的药物成分、治疗依从性、不良反应发生率、药物消费的有效性以及对照物的选择。这些信息在随后开展药物经济学研究或选择可应用这些研究的问题领域时可能非常有用。反过来，药物经济学研究可用于发现不适当处方的经济影响，并量化各种治疗干预措施的成本效益。将药物利用研究与药物经济学分析结合使用，可实现更具成本效益的药物利用，并更好地运用药物经济学方法，这两者都有助于更合理地使用药物。
