The economic burden and managed care implications of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is a symmetric demyelinating peripheral neuropathy with either a progressive or relapsing remitting course. CIDP is both debilitating and degenerative, leaving patients with functional impairment due to nerve damage in their extremities. Along with its medical burden, CIDP has a significant economic impact, with disease-related expenses and the often fairly high costs related to the immune therapies used to treat the disease. Costs for patients with this disorder often exceed those of other immune-mediated neuromuscular diseases. For these reasons, it is necessary for clinicians to better determine optimal long-term treatment strategies for patients with CIDP that are designed to address both the clinical and economic burden of its management and improve patient outcomes and quality of life.