Costs of drugs used for the treatment for 1 year were examined in 32 pa-tients with asthma in relation to disease severity. Asthma severity was classified as : 1) intermiitent; 2) mild persistent; 3) moderate persistent; 4) severe persistent. 1. The total cost of drugs used for each patient for 1 year was the highest (¥263,710) in patients of stage 4 (severe persistent) and the lowest (¥74,670) in those of stage 1 (intermittent). The costs of bronchodilators and antiallergics were predominant at all stages, and their cost increased significantly with increasing severity. 2. The costs of drugs such as antiallergics and bronchodilators were predominant, and the costs of drugs such as inhaled corticosteroids and mucolytics were considerably high in pa-tients of all stages. 3. The costs of bronchodilators, inhaled corticosteroids, and antiallergics were the largest in patients of stage 4. The results suggested that the costs of durgs used for the asthma treatment tended to increase as the disease sever-ity became stronger from stage 1 to stage 4, and the maln drugs related to the in-crease in total costs were bronchodilators, antiallergics, and inhaled corticosteroids.気管支喘息32例を対象に,治療のために要した年間薬剤費を,国際ガイドラインの重症度分類(stage1-4)により検討した。1.年間の総薬
剤費はstage4の症例で最も高く(平均¥284,370)、-万,stage1(平均¥74,670)で最も低い値を示した。2.個々の薬剤費の検討では,抗アレルギー薬,気管支拡張薬などの薬剤費が高く,次で副腎皮質ホルモン(主として吸入薬),去疾薬の順であった。3.気管支拡張薬,副腎皮質ホルモン,抗アレルギー薬などの薬剤費は,いずれもstage4で最も高い値を示した。気管支晴息に対する薬剤費は,疾患が重症になるにつれて高くなる傾向を示した。また,その主たる薬剤は気管支拡張薬,抗アレルギー薬,吸入用副腎皮質ホルモンなどであっ