New Study Says rEEG® Can Slash Cost of Mental Health Treatments
October 01, 2008
Builds on Mounting Evidence of rEEG’s Benefits to Treatment-Resistant Patients
Costa Mesa, CA -- October 1, 2008 -- CNS Response, Inc. (OTCBB: CNSO) today released a
report from Analysis Group, a national economics consulting firm, which shows the dramatic savings
CNS’s technology can bring to payers. The technology, called referenced-EEG®, is a personalized
reference lab test that guides physicians to psychiatric medications that work based on a biomarker
database. Physicians using rEEG® can cut payer costs by avoiding drug treatments that fail. The
Analysis Group study is the first that models the cost impact of rEEG® to payers.
The Analysis Group study focused on treatment-resistant (TR) patients, who add significantly to
treatment costs—more than $8,000 annually, according to a 2004 study by investigators Howard
Birnbaum and Paul Greenberg of Analysis Group. “This patient group is so costly because they
have almost double the office visits, more than three times the outpatient claims and nearly four
times the inpatient claims of patients who are not treatment-resistant,” noted Dr. Birnbaum. Without
the evidence-based guidance provided by rEEG®, physicians typically resort to “trial and error” in
choosing among the over 100 FDA-approved drugs for treating psychiatric disorders.
The study authors found that a sample health plan with 20 million members utilizing rEEG® for its
80,000 patients with treatment-resistant mental disorders would save up to 40 percent in behavioral
care costs, and approximately $212 million annually in direct health care costs. An even greater
savings in reduced absence and productivity losses brings the total to over $550 million, illustrating
that the impacts of treatment failure are not limited to behavioral health costs, but are in fact even
greater for health plans, disability plans, and employers.
“We spend over $30 billion on retail prescription drugs each year for behavioral disorders, but for
many these medications don’t work, or lose their effect over time. The myth is that these costs are
limited to behavioral care,” said George Carpenter, President of CNS Response. “The reality is that
these patients drive four times higher spending for regular medical care, almost seven times more in
prescription costs, and represent the majority of lost work days for employers. Patients have
ordered over 5,000 rEEG® tests to date, in many cases paying on their own, and their insurers
gained the benefit. This report and budget impact model present clear evidence of the direct
savings for payers reimbursing rEEG® testing for their most costly plan members.”
These latest economic results come on top of clear evidence from a series of clinical studies on
rEEG® in treatment-resistant patients. The patients studied suffered from a range of disorders
including depression, bipolar, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety and did not show
significant improvement from initial or subsequent treatment regimens. By helping physicians
prescribe more effective, individualized medications, rEEG® consistently—and often dramatically—
improved the patients’ quality of life.
“rEEG® is a win for everyone,” said Carpenter, “the patient, the physician and the payer.”
About CNS Response
CNS Response is a life-sciences data company whose patented system provides treatment
guidance to psychiatrists and other physicians for patients with behavioral (mental or addictive)
disorders. This technology allows CNS Response to create and provide simple reports (“rEEG®
Reports”) that specifically guide physicians to treatment strategies based on the patient’s own
physiology.
rEEG® utilizes traditional electroencephalography (EEG) in conjunction with a normative database
and a proprietary clinical (symptomatic) database to identify the following:
(1) medication classes most likely to be needed; and (2) medications within these classes with the
most probable treatment potential for each patient. Reports are provided to physicians in a
relationship analogous to that of a reference laboratory. Prospective, retrospective and field studies
of treatment-resistant patients have reported treatment success of 70% or greater in managed care,
outpatient psychiatric and residential substance abuse clinical settings.
In addition to providing analytical support to physicians, CNS Response is also an aid to
pharmaceutical developers, who can use rEEG to (1) stratify study populations to improve the
success of FDA clinical trials; (2) provide insight on effective therapeutic dosing of investigational
drugs; (3) identify additional indications for psychiatric medications; (4) provide insight into effective
drug combinations; and (5) discover opportunities for decision analytics and support. In addition to
these applications, CNS Response continues to investigate the use of rEEG analysis for
development of proprietary pharmaceutical opportunities.
About Analysis Group Economics
Analysis Group (www.analysisgroup.com) provides economic, financial, and business strategy
consulting to leading corporations, law firms, and government agencies. The firm has more than 450
professionals, with offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, New York,
San Francisco, Washington, and Montreal. Analysis Group’s Health Economics practice provides a
broad range of consulting services, including cost of illness research; cost-effectiveness modeling;
pricing and contracting strategy; and other health outcomes studies
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed are forward-looking
statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995, as amended. These statements involve risks and uncertainties as set forth in the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risks and uncertainties
could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements made herein.
Contact:
Investor Relations:
Marty Tuillo
McCloud Communications LLC
949.553.9748
marty@mccloudcommunications.com
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