PMID- 22687299 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20120816 LR - 20161013 IS - 1715-3360 (Electronic) IS - 0008-4182 (Linking) VI - 47 IP - 3 DP - 2012 Jun TI - Combination therapy as initial treatment in glaucoma and suspected glaucoma. PG - 240-2 LID - 10.1016/j.jcjo.2012.03.023 [doi] AB - OBJECTIVE: We hypothesize that there may be an inappropriate overuse of initial combination therapy in patients with glaucoma and in those who are glaucoma suspects. To test this hypothesis, we examined the British Columbia Population DataBase to determine the frequency of prescription of combination eye drops as initial therapy in glaucoma patients or glaucoma suspects. DESIGN: Cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: The study cohort included all those who visited an ophthalmologist's office between 2004 and 2007. Within the cohort we identified all those who were newly prescribed any ocular hypotensive eye drop. Specifically, we identified those who had been newly prescribed any ocular hypotensive eye drop within 60 days of receiving diagnoses of glaucoma, as defined by having received an international classification for disease code ICD-9 for glaucoma 365. METHODS: We used the Population Data British Columbia (POP Data BC) as the main data source for this study. POP Data BC is a provincially linkable database that captures the physician visits (including inpatient procedures); hospital admissions; demographics; and prescription drug use of 4.5 million residents of British Columbia. RESULTS: Between 2004 and 2007, the percentage of combination therapy as the first ocular hypotensive prescription rose from 12.29% to 18.63%. CONCLUSIONS: The high percentage of combination therapy as initial therapy suggests that ophthalmologists either require additional education in principles of pharmacologic therapy or are unduly influenced by their interaction with the pharmaceutical industry. CI - Copyright (c) 2012 Canadian Ophthalmological Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FAU - Mikelberg, Frederick S AU - Mikelberg FS AD - Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. fsm@mail.ubc.ca FAU - Etminan, Mahyar AU - Etminan M LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't DEP - 20120512 PL - England TA - Can J Ophthalmol JT - Canadian journal of ophthalmology. Journal canadien d'ophtalmologie JID - 0045312 RN - 0 (Adrenergic Agonists) RN - 0 (Adrenergic beta-Antagonists) RN - 0 (Antihypertensive Agents) RN - 0 (Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors) RN - 0 (Cholinergic Agonists) RN - 0 (Ophthalmic Solutions) RN - 0 (Prostaglandins) SB - IM MH - Adrenergic Agonists/administration & dosage MH - Adrenergic beta-Antagonists/administration & dosage MH - Antihypertensive Agents/*administration & dosage MH - British Columbia MH - Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors/administration & dosage MH - Cholinergic Agonists/administration & dosage MH - Cohort Studies MH - Databases, Factual MH - *Drug Therapy, Combination MH - Drug Utilization/*statistics & numerical data MH - Glaucoma/*drug therapy MH - Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice MH - Humans MH - Inappropriate Prescribing/*statistics & numerical data MH - Intraocular Pressure/*drug effects MH - Medication Adherence MH - Ocular Hypertension/drug therapy MH - Ophthalmic Solutions MH - Ophthalmology/*statistics & numerical data MH - Practice Patterns, Physicians' MH - Prostaglandins/administration & dosage EDAT- 2012/06/13 06:00 MHDA- 2012/08/17 06:00 CRDT- 2012/06/13 06:00 PHST- 2011/09/17 00:00 [received] PHST- 2011/12/23 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2012/01/25 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2012/06/13 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2012/06/13 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2012/08/17 06:00 [medline] AID - S0008-4182(12)00140-8 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.jcjo.2012.03.023 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Can J Ophthalmol. 2012 Jun;47(3):240-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jcjo.2012.03.023. Epub 2012 May 12.