Prescription patterns of long-acting somatostatin analogues

BACKGROUND: Acromegaly and endocrine tumors are uncommon morbidities that are currently treated with different drugs. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prescription patterns of somatostatin analogues in patients affiliated with the Health System of Colombia. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of patients of any age and sex treated with octreotide or lanreotide between January 2011 and August 2015. Socio-demographic, clinical (indications) and pharmacological (comedications) variables were considered. Multivariate analysis was performed with SPSS 23.0. RESULTS: We identified 289 patients, with a mean age of 56.6 ± 14.0 years and female predominance (59.5%), who underwent treatment during the 56 months of monitoring. Octreotide was used in 56.1% of cases, followed by lanreotide (43.9%), both at approved doses. We found that 4.5% of subjects changed from one drug to another over the course of therapy, which was associated with being diabetic and receiving insulin (odds ratio: 4.27; 95% confidence interval: 1.23–14.84; p = 0.014). The most common indications were acromegaly (52.2% of cases) followed by neuroendocrine tumors (15.9%). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (39.4% of cases), depression (27.3%), dyslipidemia (23.3%), diabetes mellitus (23.5%) and hypothyroidism (23.5%). Being male (odds ratio: 0.57; 95% confidence interval: 0.35–0.94; p = 0.029) and belonging to the age group between 45 and 65 years (odds ratio: 0.44; 95% confidence interval: 0.21–0.90; p = 0.024) were significantly associated with a lower risk of receiving comedications. CONCLUSION: Somatostatin analogues are being used at recommended doses, especially in patients with acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors. Variables associated with change in therapy were identified.