Research Article EvaluationofTreatmentPatternsandDirectCostsAssociatedwith the Management of Neuropathic Pain Manuel E Machado-Duque , 1,2 Andres Gaviria-Mendoza , 1,2 Jorge E Machado-Alba , 1 and Natalia Castaño 3 1 Grupo de Investigaci´ on en Farmacoepidemiolog´ ıa y Farmacovigilancia, Universidad Tecnol´ ogica de Pereira-Audifarma S.A. Pereira, Pereira, Colombia 2 Grupo Biomedicina. Fundaci´ on Universitaria Aut´ onoma de Las Am´ ericas, Pereira, Colombia 3 Pfizer S.A.S, Bogot´ a, Colombia Correspondence should be addressed to Jorge E Machado-Alba; machado@utp.edu.co Received 26 December 2019; Revised 28 February 2020; Accepted 5 March 2020; Published 30 March 2020 Academic Editor: Giustino Varrassi Copyright © 2020 Manuel E Machado-Duque et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Neuropathic pain has a prevalence of 2–17% in the general population. Diagnosis and treatment of neuropathic pain are not fully described in different populations. e aim was to determine the treatment patterns and direct costs of care associated with the management of neuropathic pain from the onset of the first symptom to up to two years after diagnosis. Methods.Froma drug-claim database, a cohort of randomly selected outpatients diagnosed with neuropathic pain was obtained from an insurer in Colombia and followed up for two years after diagnosis. e clinical records were reviewed individually to identify the study variables, including the time needed to make the diagnosis, the medical and paraclinical resources used, the pharmacological therapy for pain management, and the direct costs associated with care. Results.Weidentified624patientsin49cities,withamean age of 50.3 ± 14.1 years, of which 324 were men (51.9%). An average of 90 days passed from the initial consultation until the diagnosis of neuropathic pain, the most frequent being lumbosacral radiculopathy (57.9%). 34.5% of the cohort had at least one diagnostic imaging procedure, and 16% had an electromyography. On average, they were treated by a general practitioner twice. 91.7% received initial treatment with tramadol, carbamazepine, amitriptyline, imipramine, or pregabalin, and 60.4% received combined therapy. e mean cost of care for two years for each patient was US$246.3. Conclusions. Patients with neuropathic pain in Colombia are being diagnosed late, are using therapeutic agents not recommended as first-line treatment by clinical practice guidelines, and are being treated for short periods of time. 1. Introduction Neuropathic pain has a prevalence of 2 to 17% in the general population according to different studies [1]. e patholo- gies that generally are accepted to cause neuropathic pain include trigeminal neuralgia, painful diabetic poly- neuropathy, and postherpetic neuralgia, among others [2]. Neuropathic pain is characterized by generation of intense suffering for those who experience it and affects the quality of life of these patients and their caregivers [3]. Neuropathic pain is defined as pain produced by an injury or illness that affects the somatosensory system [2–4]. Different therapeutic strategies are available to deal with neuropathic pain, including both pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions [5, 6]. e pharmaco- logical interventions recommended for neuropathic pain management in clinical practice guidelines have been classified according to their role in the etiology or underlying pathophysiological mechanisms [3, 5, 7]. First-line treat- ments include tricyclic antidepressants and anticonvulsants, such as pregabalin and gabapentin, which have shown ef- ficacy for pain management [3, 5, 7]. As second- and third- line treatments, lidocaine, other antidepressants, especially those with dual action, other anticonvulsants, and opioids, Hindawi Pain Research and Management Volume 2020, Article ID 9353940, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/9353940