SynthesisJournal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry2001
Systematic review of immunomodulatory drugs for the treatment of people with multiple sclerosis: Is there good quality evidence on effectiveness and cost?
Synthesis in Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Assessing the Early Economic Feasibility of a Curative Gene Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis Using a Risk-Adjusted Valuation Framework.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Korean Red Ginseng extract ameliorates demyelination by inhibiting infiltration and activation of immune cells in cuprizone-administrated mice.Journal of ginseng research · 2023Article
- Transfer factor treatment in management of peritonitis condition: An experimental study in rat.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2021Article
- Management of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis: prophylactic treatment-past, present, and future aspects.Current treatment options in neurology · 2013Article
- Health-related quality of life outcomes at 1 and 5 years after a residential retreat promoting lifestyle modification for people with multiple sclerosis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2013Article
- Effects of low dose methotrexate on relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in comparison to Interferon β-1α: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of research in medical sciences : the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences · 2011Article
- Review
- Assessing cost-effectiveness in the management of multiple sclerosis.ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research : CEOR · 2009Article
- Reproducibility of three whole-brain N-acetylaspartate decline cohorts in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology · 2007Article
- The cost of multiple sclerosis and the cost effectiveness of disease-modifying agents in its treatment.CNS drugs · 2004Review
- Disease modifying treatment in multiple sclerosis.Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry · 2001Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo review the clinical effectiveness and costs of a range of disease modifying drugs in multiple sclerosis. Drugs included are azathioprine, cladribine, cyclophosphamide, intravenous immunoglobulin, methotrexate, and mitoxantrone.
methodsElectronic databases and bibliographies of related papers were searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews, and experts and pharmaceutical companies were contacted for further information. Inclusion and quality criteria were assessed, data extraction undertaken by one reviewer and checked by a second reviewer, with discrepancies being resolved through discussion. Costs were obtained and cost-effectiveness papers sought.
resultsSeventeen studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. Evidence for the clinical effectiveness of the drugs showed some reductions in relapse rates and/or progression to disability for people with MS, although benefits may be lessened by wide ranging side effects. Annual drug costs/patient are estimated to range from 60 pounds to 10200 pounds. No cost effectiveness studies were found.
conclusionEvidence for the effectiveness of these drugs in multiple sclerosis is problematic because there are few good quality trials for each drug. Trials often have methodological limitations and use different treatment regimes, patient groups, and outcome measures. Well conducted trials using outcome measures with clinical significance for groups of patients with different types of multiple sclerosis and long term follow up are needed if the evidence base of treatment for the disease is to be improved.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.