Table 2.
Prevalence of supportive medication prescription following diagnosis of BM
| White (n = 13 511) | African American (n = 2046) | Hispanic (n = 1183) | Asian (n = 1217) | P | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pain medications, no. (%) | |||||
| Non-opioid analgesics | 615 (5) | 93 (5) | 40 (3) | 81 (7) | 0.001 |
| Opioids | 6237 (46) | 1091 (53) | 601 (51) | 464 (38) | <0.001 |
| Medications for neurological symptoms, no. (%) | |||||
| Anti-emetics | 8935 (66) | 1206 (59) | 754 (64) | 750 (62) | <0.001 |
| Anti-epileptics | 3753 (28) | 593 (29) | 361 (31) | 280 (23) | <0.001 |
| Headache aids | 7488 (55) | 1008 (49) | 598 (51) | 616 (51) | <0.001 |
| Steroids | 7924 (59) | 1079 (53) | 642 (54) | 655 (54) | <0.001 |
| Cognitive aids | 295 (2) | 42 (2) | 27 (2) | 38 (3) | 0.18 |
| Psychotropic medications, no. (%) | |||||
| Antidepressants | 3177 (24) | 357 (17) | 220 (19) | 124 (10) | <0.001 |
| Anxiolyticsa | 2096 (16) | 226 (11) | 123 (10) | 100 (8) | <0.001 |
| Antidelirium/antipsychotic agents | 454 (3) | 117 (6) | 26 (2) | 43 (4) | <0.001 |
| Other, no. (%) | |||||
| Muscle relaxants | 987 (7) | 161 (8) | 72 (6) | 37 (3) | <0.001 |
| Sleep aids | 2988 (22) | 337 (16) | 225 (19) | 230 (19) | <0.001 |
| Appetite stimulants | 8403 (62) | 1188 (58) | 685 (58) | 735 (60) | <0.001 |
aBenzodiazepines were not covered by Part D until 2013.
Note: Due to NCI data policies that mandate tables do not contain cells with ≤10 patients, we could not show data on psychostimulants in the table above.