maceutical form. As the medication is mostly a long-term regimen these resource uses were valued using biggest available packages. Prices were taken from the German “Rote Liste” with 2006 as price year. In addition, cost-influencing factors were analysed via correlation analyses. RESULTS: A total of 3150 pharmaceutical records from 301 CF patients were collected. Annual and daily medication costs were analysed for different age groups. Mean annual costs for medication are €21,603 per patient (range: €69; €86,790). Correlation analyses showed sig- nificant correlations (p = 0.01) between costs of medication and age, co-morbidities (like pancreatic insufficiency and diabetes mellitus and clinical parameters like the colonization of the lung with germs) as well as functional parameters (% of vital capacity, FEV1, MEF25). E.g. mean annual costs for medication are €14,884 (€23,815) for patients without (with) colonization of the lung with germs. Other correlation factors yielded similar cost dispersions in (un)affected patients. CONCLUSIONS: CF patients need specialized medication depending on age, co-morbidities and other clinical parameters. Non-optimal treatment leads to significantly higher costs for the health care system. PND15 THE INDIRECT COST BURDEN OF EPILEPSY IN THE UNITED STATES Birnbaum HG 1 , Ivanova J 2 , Kidolezi Y 1 , Caleo S 3 1 Analysis Group, Inc, Boston, MA, USA, 2 Analysis Group, Inc, New York, NY, USA, 3 Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V, Beerse, Belgium OBJECTIVES: Compare annual indirect costs between privately insured employees with epilepsy and matched employee con- trols. METHODS: Employees with greater than or equal to 1 epilepsy diagnosis (ICD-9-CM: 345.x) in 2004, ages 18–64 years, were selected from a privately insured claims database containing disability data from 17 U.S. companies. A random sample of age and gender matched employees without epilepsy was selected as a control group. All were required to have con- tinuous health coverage during 2004 (baseline) and 2005 (study period). Chi-squared tests were used to compare baseline comor- bidities and differences in indirect resource use (disability and medically-related absenteeism). Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used for univariate comparisons of mean disability and medically-related absenteeism days and associated annual indi- rect costs during the study period. Two-part models were used to compare indirect costs adjusting for differences in demographic/ clinical characteristics. RESULTS: Employees with epilepsy (n = 1,866) averaged 48.4 years old (SD  10.4), and 55% were male. Compared with controls, employees with epilepsy had significantly higher rates of mental disorders, substance abuse, other neurological disorders and physical disorders measured by the Charlson Comorbidity Index. Employees with epilepsy were more likely to have a short- or long-term disability claim com- pared with controls (16.5% vs 5.6%, respectively; P < 0.0001), resulting in higher mean number of annual disability days (38.6 vs 6.6, respectively, P < 0.0001) and higher annual disability costs ($1836 vs $338, respectively; P < 0.0001). Medically- related absenteeism costs were also higher for employees with epilepsy compared with controls ($1356 vs $904, respectively; P < 0.0001). Average total indirect costs for employees with epi- lepsy were $3912 vs $1242 for controls (P < 0.0001) and remained significantly higher after adjusting for patient charac- teristics ($2793 vs $1578, respectively; P < 0.0001). CONCLU- SIONS: Employees with epilepsy were three times more likely to have disability workloss, had six times the number of disability days, and three times higher indirect costs compared with matched employee controls. PND16 INDIRECT COSTS OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE IN THE UNITED STATES Anderson K Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to estimate the number of people with Alzheimer’s related morbidity and mor- tality and to estimate the indirect costs for Alzheimer’s disease in the United States. Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic progres- sive disease with a prevalence rate of 10% of the United States population at age 70 and a prevalence rate of 40% by age 90. METHODS: The Human Capital method was used to estimate indirect costs for Alzheimer’s disease. The Medical Expendi- tures Panel Survey, a nationally representative database of U.S., non-institutionalized civilians was used to estimate the morbid- ity (missed work and bed days) portion of indirect costs. The value of a bed day was estimated at 40% of the daily wage rate the person would have earned if they were in the workforce. The 2004 National Vital Statistics Survey Mortality Data was used to estimate the mortality portion of indirect costs for Alzheimer’s disease. RESULTS: A total of 26,745,385 bed days were reported by patients with Alzheimer’s in 2004. Of the 65,965 deaths that were reported due to Alzheimer’s, 8,320 occurred prior to life expectancy. In U.S. dollars the overall total for indirect costs for Alzheimer’s patients in 2004 was over $1.3 billion. The majority of indirect costs for people with Alzheimer’s were due to morbidity. CONCLUSIONS: By the year 2030, population estimates predict the most rapidly growing population segment will be those 85 and older. Given the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease with advancing age, the number of persons developing Alzheimer’s disease will increase dramatically over the next several decades as will the indirect costs. This study most likely underestimates the mor- bidity costs of Alzheimer’s disease because patients in nursing homes and other institutions are not included in the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey. PND17 ONE-YEAR EXPENSES FOR THE PHARMACOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT OF EPILEPSYWITHIN OUTPATIENT SETTING OF MONTENEGRO: RATIONAL OR NOT? Duborija-Kovacevic N 1 ,Vujisic S 2 1 University of Montenegro Medical School, Podgorica, Serbia and Montenegro, 2 Clinical Centre of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro, Serbia and Montenegro OBJECTIVES: Our recent study has found that pharmacologi- cal management of epilepsy within outpatient setting of Mon- tenegro has been slightly different in comparison to developed countries. This was probably the consequence of many medical and non-medical influences, whose separate contribution to prescribing cannot be fully explained. In this study we investi- gated the one-year expenses for the outpatient pharmacological management of epilepsy in our country, with particular high- light on potential cost-saving. METHODS: Data about antiepi- leptics (ATC code N03) which were prescribed for the treatment of epilepsy (G40 code according to ICD-X revision) during 2005 were extracted from the National database which was set up within Republic Health Insurance Fund of Mon- tenegro since 2003. Standard DDD/ATC (defined daily dose/ anatomic-therapeutic-chemical) methodology for the outpatient drug utilization was used. Than we multiplied the number of prescribed DDDs per 1000 inhabitants per day (DTIDs) with the average price of one DDD for each drug. Our country has a population of approximately 660,000 people and currency is A604 Abstracts