# Prevalence of vestibular disease in France: analysis of prescription data from a national health insurance database

Eva Grill, Vincent Darrouzet, Ulrich Mansmann, Christian Chabbert

► To cite this version:

Eva Grill, Vincent Darrouzet, Ulrich Mansmann, Christian Chabbert. Prevalence of vestibular disease in France: analysis of prescription data from a national health insurance database. Journal of Neurology, 2024, 271 (8), pp.4865 - 4870. 10.1007/s00415-024-12423-z. hal-05385924

HAL Id: hal-05385924

https://hal.science/hal-05385924v1

Submitted on 27 Nov 2025

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Prevalence of vestibular disease in France: analysis of prescription data from a national health insurance database

Eva Grill<fnref n="1" />,<fnref n="2" /> ID · Vincent Darrouzet<fnref n="3" /> ID · Ulrich Mansmann<fnref n="1" /> ID · Christian Chabbert<fnref n="4" />,<fnref n="5" /> ID

Received: 9 February 2024 / Revised: 29 February 2024 / Accepted: 2 May 2024

© The Author(s) 2024

## Abstract

Vestibular problems are frequent reasons for primary care consultations. However, there is considerable uncertainty about the prevalence and cost of vestibular disorders. Despite ambiguous effectiveness data, the histamine analogue betahistine is widely and almost exclusively used for treatment of vertigo. Prescription of betahistine can, therefore, be used as a proxy estimate for prevalence. We used openly available claims data from the French health insurance data warehouse, defining annual prevalence of vestibular disease as the number of people who received at least one betahistine prescription that year. Dosage and pack size of each prescribed formulation were extracted to calculate the sum of betahistine in mg and the Defined Daily Dose (DDD) for age and sex strata and in total. To estimate the relative impact of one landmark trial, the BEMED study, we compared prescriptions from the years 2014/2015 to prescriptions in 2019/2022. A total of 735,121 (2014), 694,705 (2015), 614,431 (2019), and 562,476 (2022) persons filled in a prescription of betahistine. Patients were predominantly older and female. Average amount dispensed per year and per person increased from 4422.54 mg during the pre-BEMED period to 4736.90 mg during the post-BEMED period. DDD decreased from 130 Mio per year in 2014/2015 to 116 Mio per year in 2019/2022. Total costs for betahistine decreased by 42% from 21,615,037 Euro in 2014 to 12,894,249 Euro in 2022. Vestibular disease is frequent in France and has a relevant impact on population health. Despite conflicting clinical evidence, betahistine continues to be prescribed widely in medical practice.

**Keywords** Vestibular disorders · Vestibular pathologies · Vertigo · Dizziness · Menière's disease betahistine

## Introduction

In most industrialized countries, vertigo, dizziness, and balance problems are among the most frequent reasons for primary care consultations. Among the recurrent vestibular disorders that cause vertigo, Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, Menière's Disease (MD), and Vestibular Migraine account for about 50% of all cases presenting with vertigo. One-year prevalence of vestibular disease has been estimated at 5% by a representative survey in Germany [1]. Vestibular disease may be severely disabling and account for a considerable burden of disease and disability [2–5]. A systematic review of international studies about primary care utilization found that between 1 and 8% of all listed patients had contacted a physician at least once because of vertigo or dizziness [6]. For the United States of America, an average annual total of 48.1 billion USD direct costs for the years 2007 to 2015 were estimated [7], while another analysis of 2018 medical claims data reported an incremental increase of direct costs of 60

<footnote>Eva Grill
eva.grill@med.uni-muenchen.de</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹ Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians University Muenchen, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany</footnote>

<footnote n="2">² German Centre for Vertigo and Balance Disorders, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians University Muenchen, Munich, Germany</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³ Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ Research Centre in Psychology and Neuroscience UMR7077, CNRS-Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France</footnote>

<footnote n="5">⁵ Research Group on Vestibular Pathophysiology; Unit GDR2074 CNRS, Marseille, France</footnote>
billion USD from patients diagnosed with episodic recur-
rent vestibular vertigo [8]. Total annual direct and indirect
costs of MD alone for the UK were between 541.30 mil-
lion and 608.70 million pound per year [9].

Yet, there is considerable uncertainty around the data
reported on prevalence, incidence, and costs of vestibu-
lar disease. Large population-based representative cohort
studies hardly ever include a detailed workup of vestibu-
lar and balance functions. Self-reported occurrence of
vertigo or dizziness is not specific for vestibular disease,
and patient descriptions may be unclear, inconsistent,
and unreliable [10]. The second obvious place for repre-
sentative data, medical claims data, has limited diagnostic
validity, because vestibular disease is not well represented
in the ICD-10; therefore, vestibular diagnoses in claims
data tend to reflect these inaccuracies of the ICD system
[11].

As a potential solution, information on medication from
insurance claims data has successfully been used to esti-
mate the prevalence of chronic disease [12]. Thus, it may
also be possible to estimate the prevalence of vestibular
disease from prescription data. Betahistine is a histamine
analogue that is widely [13] and almost exclusively used
for treatment of vertigo in general, and specifically as a
maintenance medication for the prevention of MD attacks
[14]. Using evidence from randomized-controlled trials,
effectiveness of betahistine at currently recommended dos-
age regimes in Menière's disease seems to be weak [15]
including, e.g., one clinical trial that could show no differ-
ence to placebo, the Medical Treatment of Menière's Dis-
ease with Betahistine (BEMED) trial [16]. Betahistine at
doses higher than the recommended dose was effective in
relieving the symptoms in unilateral vestibulopathy [17].
A meta-analysis of 17 studies found a reduction of symp-
toms in patients with vertigo of different origins; however,
risk of bias and heterogeneity of the included studies were
high [18].

Betahistine continues to be prescribed, as shown in a
recent study from the United Kingdom that compared pre-
scriptions before and after 2016, the year of the BEMED
publication [19]. Prescriptions of betahistine can therefore
be a good indicator for the prevalence of vestibular disease,
because betahistine is not regularly prescribed for other
diagnoses. As France has an almost complete coverage of
health insurance, we are using data from the French health
insurance reporting system to estimate the annual prevalence of vestibular disease by the number of betahistine prescriptions. We were specifically interested in the amount of betahistine substance being prescribed per year, and in the sociodemographic characteristics of the patients who fill in betahistine prescriptions. Additionally, we wanted to investigate if there was any change in prescription practice following the BEMED trial in 2016.

Methods

Data sources

In France, health insurance is universally provided as part
of the social security system. The statutory health insurance
covers most of the costs of medical treatment including med-
ication. Data on medication dispensed in France and fully
or partially reimbursed are collected by the French health
insurance data warehouse (SNDS) and openly available in
aggregated form for download. Data from the SNDS cover
almost all beneficiaries of the French health insurance, i.e.,
99% of the French population [20]. Betahistine is available
only on prescription from retail pharmacies in France.

Variables

Data from the public aggregated version of the SNDS
include information on the hierarchical anatomical thera-
peutic chemical (ATC) classification codes up to the chemi-
cal substance (5th level classification), the unique identifier
for all drug presentations in France, the Code Identification
Spécialité Pharmaceutique (CIP13), the CIP13 label con-
taining dosage and pack size, the number of packs, the drug
costs in Euro, and the amount of costs reimbursed. Costs
are prices charged by pharmacies and do not include any
costs for acquisition or administration. Sociodemographic
information on patients is given on an aggregated level
to preserve data protection, namely age in three brackets
(0–19 years, 20–59 years, 60+ years), and gender. To avoid
de-anonymisation, sociodemographic information is only
given for strata with at least ten persons. This includes a
total of 38 dose forms that were dispensed very infrequently,
which might result in small discrepancies of our results to
any summary measures reported elsewhere.

Statistical analyses

The ATC code N07CA01 was used to extract the prescriptions
of betahistine in all trademark and generic formulations. We
defined annual prevalence of vestibular disease as the number
of people who received at least one betahistine prescription
that year. From the CIP13 label, dosage of betahistine and
pack size of each formulation were extracted to calculate the
sum of prescribed betahistine in mg for each stratum and in
total. To give an example, the dose form and package unit
“BETAHISTINE ACCORD 08 MG CPR 30” would yield the
information that each tablet contains 8 mg of betahistine and
each package contains 30 tablets which adds a total of 240 mg
betahistine per prescription. Total amount of betahistine in mg
per person was then calculated by multiplying the package

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>
content in mg by the number of packages of the respective dose form and by dividing the sum of prescribed betahistine per stratum by the number of consumers of each stratum and in total. Defined Daily Dose (DDD) was calculated based on the standard dose of active substance of 24 mg. This dose is not equal to the actual prescribed or effective dose but serves as a standardization method for comparisons.

To compare prescriptions and dosage before and after the BEMED trial, we defined betahistine prescriptions from 2014 and 2015 as pre-BEMED and from 2019 and 2022 as post-BEMED. We hypothesized that prescriptions during the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 would differ from the previous years due to reasons unrelated to our objectives.

SAS (SAS Institute, version 9.4, NC, USA) and Excel Power Pivot (Microsoft Corp.) were used for all analyses.

## Results

A total of 735,121 (2014), 694,705 (2015), 614,431 (2019), and 562,476 (2022) persons received and filled in a prescription of betahistine. Table 1 shows the total amount of mg betahistine and number of packages dispensed, the Defined Daily Dose (DDD), and the total amount of costs and the costs reimbursed, stratified by sociodemographic characteristics and year.

There was a notable decrease of the number of consumers and of most of the other summary measures in 2019 and 2022 as compared to 2014 and 2015, except for mg betahistine per person. Average amount of betahistine dispensed per year and per person was 4263.71 mg in 2014, 4482.75 mg in 2015, 4619.62 mg in 2019, and 4864.90 mg in 2022, increasing from 4422.54 mg during the pre-BEMED period to 4736.90 mg during the post-BEMED period. DDD decreased from an average of 130 Mio per year in 2014/2015 to an average of 116 Mio per year in 2019/2022. Patients aged 60 and over received the highest amount of betahistine per year in all years, with 5206.46 mg in 2014 to 5750.17 mg in 2022. Mg per person increased in both men and women.

Total costs for betahistine decreased by 42% from 21,615,037 Euro in 2014 to 12,894,249 Euro in 2022, of which less than 50% was reimbursed.

The number of available betahistine dose forms in France decreased from 49 in 2014 to 38 in 2022. Most dose forms were either 8 mg or 24 mg. The percentage of dose forms with 8 mg decreased from 61% in 2014 to 47% in 2022.

## Discussion

Our study on the magnitude of filled in prescriptions found that between 2014 and 2022, 560,000 to 740,000 persons insured by the French statutory health insurance received betahistine. Patients with betahistine were predominantly

older and female. While package count, total mg prescribed and DDD decreased when comparing years before 2016 to years after, mg per person per year increased steadily in all age groups.

As 99% of the French population is currently inscribed in the statutory health insurance [20], the number of persons with filled in prescriptions of betahistine corresponds to roughly 0.9% of the population of 67Mio persons contained in the SNDS. This number aligns well with the estimated 1% of annual consultations for vestibular disease from other studies [6], albeit at the lower end. The total annual number of 142 Mio prescribed tablets found in our study for 2022 also approximates the monthly 11 Mio tablets prescribed in the UK for an insured population of 57 Mio [19]. We are likely to underestimate the true prevalence of vestibular disease, because not all patients who seek consultation for vestibular symptoms will receive a prescription of betahistine, but the magnitudes we found are in the expected range of persons with moderate-to-severe vertigo.

While betahistine is mainly licenced for Menière's disease (MD), our estimates of prescriptions largely exceed the prevalence of MD of 40 to 200 per 100,000 in the general population estimated by other studies [21–23]. Partly, this can be explained by the tendency to overdiagnose MD in medical practice [21, 23]. Nevertheless, our findings also confirm that betahistine is prescribed not only for MD but also for a wide range of other vestibular diagnoses. These prescription patterns have also been reported elsewhere [19]. Data from Germany show that about 20% of patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, 63% of MD patients, and 26% of vestibular migraine patients received betahistine in primary care before presenting at a tertiary care clinic [24].

According to our data, prescriptions of betahistine in France decreased considerably between 2014 and 2022. There are several potential explanations for this: first, a decrease of vestibular disease in France, second, an improved, more evidence-based prescription practice following the BEMED trial, or third, reasons related to the pharmaceutical market. To start with disease prevalence, it is unlikely that diagnosis or true prevalence of vestibular disease decreased within 8 years by almost 25%. While fluctuations in the prevalence of vestibular disorders in different regions have been reported, there is no clear indication of a consistent increase or decrease in prevalence over the last decade. Second, decline in prescriptions could be the sign of some improvement of prescribing practice. Interestingly, the use of betahistine in MD or more generally in vestibular disease has no strong base of evidence [15, 18]. Likewise, the French Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Society does not recommend betahistine as a first line treatment of MD [25]. It can be argued that prescriptions did decrease after 2016, probably also following the publication results
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Table 1** Prescriptions of betahistine in France</figcaption></figure>

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2"></th><th rowspan="2"></th><th colspan="2">Persons</th><th colspan="2">Total mg betahistine prescribed</th><th colspan="2">Prescriptions (pack-ages)</th><th colspan="2">Tablets</th><th colspan="2">Dosage per person<sup>a</sup></th><th colspan="2">Costs reimbursed</th><th colspan="2">Cost basis</th><th colspan="2">DDD</th></tr><tr><th>n</th><th>%</th><th>n</th><th>%</th><th>n</th><th>%</th><th>n</th><th>%</th><th>mg</th><th>mg</th><th>Euro</th><th>Euro</th><th>mg</th><th>Euro</th><th>mg</th><th>Euro</th><th>mg</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Year</td><td>2014</td><td>735,121</td><td></td><td>3,134,345,280</td><td></td><td>2,820,669</td><td></td><td>175,520,175</td><td></td><td>4263.71</td><td></td><td>8,161,382.03</td><td></td><td>21,615,036.51</td><td></td><td>130,597,720</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2015</td><td>694,705</td><td></td><td>3,114,186,240</td><td></td><td>2,780,183</td><td></td><td>172,506,630</td><td></td><td>4482.75</td><td></td><td>6,725,259.78</td><td></td><td>17,391,851.91</td><td></td><td>129,757,760</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Period</td><td>2019</td><td>614,431</td><td></td><td>2,838,435,120</td><td></td><td>2,448,591</td><td></td><td>150,419,055</td><td></td><td>4619.62</td><td></td><td>5,496,010.17</td><td></td><td>14,104,528.74</td><td></td><td>118,268,130</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2022</td><td>562,476</td><td></td><td>2,736,388,320</td><td></td><td>2,324,386</td><td></td><td>141,516,435</td><td></td><td>4864.90</td><td></td><td>5,116,627.98</td><td></td><td>12,894,248.82</td><td></td><td>114,016,180</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>2014</td><td>1,429,826</td><td>55</td><td>6,323,460,480</td><td>53</td><td>5,600,852</td><td>54</td><td>352,440,630</td><td>55</td><td>4422.54</td><td></td><td>14,886,641.81</td><td></td><td>39,006,888.42</td><td></td><td>130,177,740</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2019/2022</td><td>1,176,907</td><td>45</td><td>5,574,891,120</td><td>47</td><td>4,772,977</td><td>46</td><td>291,938,310</td><td>45</td><td>4736.90</td><td></td><td>10,612,638.15</td><td></td><td>26,998,777.56</td><td></td><td>116,142,155</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>0-19</td><td>5000</td><td>1</td><td>6,843,600</td><td>0</td><td>6361</td><td>0</td><td>390,405</td><td>0</td><td>1368.72</td><td></td><td>14,802.47</td><td></td><td>47,957.12</td><td></td><td>285,150</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>20-59</td><td>276,574</td><td>38</td><td>775,919,520</td><td>25</td><td>665,413</td><td>24</td><td>40,666,485</td><td>23</td><td>2805.47</td><td></td><td>1,808,051.35</td><td></td><td>5,191,705.36</td><td></td><td>32,329,980</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Period</td><td>2014/2015</td><td></td><td></td><td>450,519</td><td>61</td><td>2,345,608,080</td><td>75</td><td>2,143,609</td><td>76</td><td>134,135,625</td><td>76</td><td>5206.46</td><td></td><td>6,323,085.97</td><td></td><td>16,334,688.60</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2019/2022</td><td></td><td></td><td>3028</td><td>0</td><td>5,974,080</td><td>0</td><td>5286</td><td>0</td><td>327,660</td><td>0</td><td>1972.95</td><td></td><td>15,442.24</td><td></td><td>40,685.43</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>0-19</td><td>4517</td><td>1</td><td>6,465,120</td><td>0</td><td>5960</td><td>0</td><td>364,320</td><td>0</td><td>1431.29</td><td></td><td>11,489.84</td><td></td><td>36,809.07</td><td></td><td>269,380</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>20-59</td><td>256,730</td><td>37</td><td>743,673,840</td><td>24</td><td>632,396</td><td>23</td><td>38,614,215</td><td>22</td><td>2896.72</td><td></td><td>1,396,369.02</td><td></td><td>3,992,046.67</td><td></td><td>30,986,410</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Period</td><td>2014/2015</td><td></td><td></td><td>432,086</td><td>62</td><td>2,360,995,200</td><td>76</td><td>2,139,191</td><td>77</td><td>133,368,675</td><td>77</td><td>5464.18</td><td></td><td>531,019.36</td><td></td><td>13,346,455.41</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2019</td><td>1372</td><td>0</td><td>3,052,080</td><td>0</td><td>2636</td><td>0</td><td>159,420</td><td>0</td><td>2224.55</td><td></td><td>6381.56</td><td></td><td>16,540.76</td><td></td><td>127,170</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>0-19</td><td>4459</td><td>1</td><td>6,861,360</td><td>0</td><td>6076</td><td>0</td><td>372,540</td><td>0</td><td>1538.77</td><td></td><td>10,864.09</td><td></td><td>34,442.05</td><td></td><td>285,890</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>20-59</td><td>223,493</td><td>36</td><td>688,119,120</td><td>24</td><td>567,063</td><td>23</td><td>34,418,610</td><td>23</td><td>3078.93</td><td></td><td>1,169,950.62</td><td></td><td>3298,419.55</td><td></td><td>28,671,630</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Period</td><td>2014</td><td></td><td></td><td>386,146</td><td>63</td><td>2,142,027,600</td><td>75</td><td>1,874,303</td><td>77</td><td>115,561,095</td><td>77</td><td>5547.20</td><td></td><td>4,311,976.65</td><td></td><td>10,764,860.02</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2019</td><td>333</td><td>0</td><td>1,427,040</td><td>0</td><td>1149</td><td>0</td><td>66,810</td><td>0</td><td>4285.41</td><td></td><td>3218.81</td><td></td><td>6807.12</td><td></td><td>59,460</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>0-19</td><td>4098</td><td>1</td><td>6,393,840</td><td>0</td><td>5714</td><td>0</td><td>351,030</td><td>0</td><td>1560.23</td><td></td><td>9840.52</td><td></td><td>31,059.25</td><td></td><td>266,410</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>20-59</td><td>196,263</td><td>35</td><td>647,968,800</td><td>24</td><td>526,807</td><td>23</td><td>31,827,855</td><td>22</td><td>3301.53</td><td></td><td>1,057,985.16</td><td></td><td>2,958,189.39</td><td></td><td>26,998,700</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>2014</td><td></td><td></td><td>361,913</td><td>64</td><td>2,081,060,160</td><td>76</td><td>1,791,119</td><td>77</td><td>109,292,790</td><td>77</td><td>5750.17</td><td></td><td>4,046,556.28</td><td></td><td>9,900,708.10</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2019</td><td>202</td><td>0</td><td>965,520</td><td>0</td><td>746</td><td>0</td><td>44,760</td><td>0</td><td>4779.80</td><td></td><td>2246.02</td><td></td><td>4292.08</td><td></td><td>86,710,840</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Gender</td><td>Male</td><td>217,652</td><td>30</td><td>896,227,920</td><td>29</td><td>794,337</td><td>28</td><td>49,220,460</td><td>28</td><td>4117.71</td><td></td><td>2,439,951.68</td><td></td><td>6,108,519.76</td><td></td><td>37,342,830</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Female</td><td>515,161</td><td>70</td><td>2,234,926,560</td><td>71</td><td>2,023,292</td><td>72</td><td>126,107,625</td><td>72</td><td>4338.31</td><td></td><td>5,713,179.98</td><td></td><td>15,483,862.43</td><td></td><td>93,121,940</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>2014</td><td></td><td></td><td>2308</td><td>0</td><td>3,190,800</td><td>0</td><td>3040</td><td>0</td><td>192,090</td><td>0</td><td>1382.50</td><td></td><td>8250.37</td><td></td><td>132,950</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2019</td><td>207,908</td><td>30</td><td>908,433,840</td><td>2</td><td>799,185</td><td>29</td><td>49,405,410</td><td>29</td><td>4369.40</td><td></td><td>2,050,000.95</td><td></td><td>5,003,630.73</td><td></td><td>37,851,410</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>Male</td><td>486,155</td><td>70</td><td>2,204,874,480</td><td>71</td><td>1,980,197</td><td>71</td><td>123,050,640</td><td>71</td><td>4535.33</td><td></td><td>4,673,612.08</td><td></td><td>12,383,234.48</td><td></td><td>91,869,770</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Female</td><td>642</td><td>0</td><td>877,920</td><td>0</td><td>801</td><td>0</td><td>50,580</td><td>0</td><td>1367.48</td><td></td><td>1646.75</td><td></td><td>4986.70</td><td></td><td>36,580</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>2014</td><td></td><td></td><td>185,497</td><td>30</td><td>840,929,040</td><td>30</td><td>713,011</td><td>29</td><td>43,666,275</td><td>29</td><td>4533.38</td><td></td><td>1,701,929.41</td><td></td><td>35,038,230</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2019</td><td>428,871</td><td>70</td><td>1,997,448,480</td><td>70</td><td>1,735,485</td><td>71</td><td>106,746,000</td><td>71</td><td>4657.46</td><td></td><td>3793,837.07</td><td></td><td>9,982,361.52</td><td></td><td>83,225,280</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>Male</td><td>63</td><td>0</td><td>110,880</td><td>0</td><td>95</td><td>0</td><td>6780</td><td>0</td><td>1760.00</td><td></td><td>243.69</td><td></td><td>557.94</td><td></td><td>4620</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2022</td><td>169,512</td><td>30</td><td>811,044,240</td><td>30</td><td>677,109</td><td>29</td><td>41,129,190</td><td>29</td><td>4784.58</td><td></td><td>1575,640.58</td><td></td><td>3,772,543.56</td><td></td><td>33,793,510</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Age</td><td>Male</td><td>392,908</td><td>70</td><td>1,925,055,360</td><td>70</td><td>1,647,059</td><td>71</td><td>100,373,595</td><td>71</td><td>4899.51</td><td></td><td>3540,388.68</td><td></td><td>912,456.44</td><td></td><td>80,210,640</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Undisclosed</td><td>56</td><td>0</td><td>288,720</td><td>0</td><td>218</td><td>0</td><td>13,650</td><td>0</td><td>5155.71</td><td></td><td>598.72</td><td></td><td>248.82</td><td></td><td>12,030</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

To avoid de-anonymisation, sociodemographic information is only given for strata with at least ten persons

<sup>a</sup>Mean mg betahistine prescribed per person per year; DDD: Defined Daily Dose (basis 24 mg betahistine)
from the BEMED clinical trial for betahistine in MD in 2016 [16] and a Cochrane review on the utilization of betahistine in vertigo [18]. At the same time, we found that the amount of betahistine dispensed per person increased. Both findings may be a consequence of the discussions around the low bioavailability of betahistine due to the first-pass elimination [26], which may be counteracted by increasing the oral dose. As patient safety precludes a substantial dose increase, and as parenteral application is hardly feasible, the addition of a pharmacological booster such as selegiline is hypothesized to improve the effectiveness of betahistine [27]. This tendency for higher dosage regimes is also reflected in the decreasing market presence of the low dosage forms found in our data. A third reason for the decline in prescriptions is likely to be market-related, as betahistine formulations have been out of stock or difficult to obtain in France for some time.

Prescriptions of betahistine in France are still on a high level. To give an example, the decrease of DDD in France from 131 Mio mg in 2014 to 114 Mio mg in 2022 found in our data is well above the 68 Mio DDD reported in Germany in a population of 74 Mio insured persons [28]. Of note, the German DDD for betahistine in 2022 was higher as compared to 2019 (62 Mio DDD).

Our study has its strengths in the rigorous database of the SNDS that gives access to a complete, reproducible, and unbiased analysis of medications in the French health care system. Limitations include the lack of individual information on patients including detailed diagnoses and prescription trajectories.

In summary, the prescription of betahistine each year seems to be a good indicator for the prevalence of vestibular disease in France. Vestibular disease is frequent in France and has a relevant impact on population health. Despite conflicting clinical evidence, betahistine continues to be prescribed widely in medical practice.

**Author contributions** Conceptualization: Christian Chabbert, Vincent Darrouzet, and Eva Grill; methodology: Eva Grill and Ulrich Mansmann; formal analysis and investigation: Eva Grill; writing—original draft preparation: Eva Grill; writing—review and editing: Christian Chabbert, Vincent Darrouzet, Ulrich Mansmann, and Eva Grill.

**Funding** Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

**Data availability** Data are available at https://assurance-maladie.ameli.fr/etudes-et-donnees/open-medic-depenses-beneficiaires-medicaments.

**Code availability** SAS-Code is available upon request from the corresponding author.

## Declarations

**Competing interests** The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

**Consent for publication** Not applicable.

**Consent to participate** Not applicable.

**Ethics approval** By agreement of the French Data Protection Supervisory Authority, neither ethics committee approval nor informed consent is required for analyses based on aggregated medico-administrative data because of the anonymous nature of the data.

**Open Access** This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

## References

1. Neuhauser HK, von Brevern M, Radtke A, Lezius F, Feldmann M, Ziese T, Lempert T (2005) Epidemiology of vestibular vertigo: a neurotologic survey of the general population. Neurology 65(6):898-904. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000175987.59991.3d

2. Grill E, Heuberger M, Strobl R, Saglam M, Holle R, Linkohr B, Ladwig KH, Peters A, Schneider E, Jahn K, Lehnen N (2018) Prevalence, determinants, and consequences of vestibular hypofunction. Results from the KORA-FF4 Survey. Front Neurol 9(1076):1076. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2018.01076

3. Grill E, Penger M, Kentala E (2016) Health care utilization, prognosis and outcomes of vestibular disease in primary care settings: systematic review. J Neurol 263(Suppl 1):S36-44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-015-7913-2

4. Mueller M, Strobl R, Jahn K, Linkohr B, Peters A, Grill E (2014) Burden of disability attributable to vertigo and dizziness in the aged: results from the KORA-Age study. Eur J Public Health 24(5):802-807. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckt171

5. Neuhauser HK, Radtke A, von Brevern M, Lezius F, Feldmann M, Lempert T (2008) Burden of dizziness and vertigo in the community. Arch Intern Med 168(19):2118-2124. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.168.19.2118

6. Bösner S, Schwarm S, Grevenrath P, Schmidt L, Hörner K, Beidatsch D, Bergmann M, Viniol A, Becker A, Haasenritter J (2018) Prevalence, aetiologies and prognosis of the symptom dizziness in primary care – a systematic review. BMC Fam Pract 19(1):33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-017-0695-0

7. Ruthberg JS, Rasendran C, Kocharyan A, Mowry SE, Otteson TD (2021) The economic burden of vertigo and dizziness in the United States. J Vestib Res 31:81-90. https://doi.org/10.3233/VES-201531

8. Jeong SS, Simpson KN, Johnson JM, Rizk HG (2022) Assessment of the cost burden of episodic recurrent vestibular vertigo in the US. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 148(12):1103-1110. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoto.2022.3247

9. Tyrrell J, Whinney DJ, Taylor T (2016) The cost of Meniere's disease: a novel multisource approach. Ear Hear 37(3):e202-e209. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000264
10. Newman-Toker DE, Cannon LM, Stofferahn ME, Rothman RE, Hsieh YH, Zee DS (2007) Imprecision in patient reports of dizziness symptom quality: a cross-sectional study conducted in an acute care setting. Mayo Clin Proc 82(11):1329-1340. https://doi.org/10.4065/82.11.1329

11. Rieger A, Mansmann U, Maier W, Seitz L, Brandt T, Strupp M, Bayer O (2014) Management of patients with the cardinal symptom dizziness or vertigo. Gesundheitswesen 76(6):e32-e38. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0033-1357145

12. Chini F, Pezzotti P, Orzella L, Borgia P, Guasticchi G (2011) Can we use the pharmacy data to estimate the prevalence of chronic conditions? A comparison of multiple data sources. BMC Public Health 11:688. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-688

13. Agus S, Benecke H, Thum C, Strupp M, Gasteyger C (2013) Clinical and demographic features of vertigo: findings from the REVERT Registry. Front Neurol. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur. 2013.00048

14. Smith WK, Sankar V, Pfleiderer AG (2005) A national survey among UK otolaryngologists regarding the treatment of Meniere's disease. J Laryngol Otol 119(2):102-105. https://doi.org/10.1258/ 0022215053419871

15. Webster KE, Galbraith K, Harrington-Benton NA, Judd O, Kaski D, Maarsingh OR, MacKeith S, Ray J, Van Vugt VA, Burton MJ (2023) Systemic pharmacological interventions for Meniere's disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2(2):CD015171. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD015171.pub2

16. Adrion C, Fischer CS, Wagner J, Gurkov R, Mansmann U, Strupp M, BEMED Study Group (2016) Efficacy and safety of betahistidine treatment in patients with Meniere's disease: primary results of a long term, multicentre, double blind, randomized, placebo controlled, dose defining trial (BEMED trial). BMJ 352:h6816. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h6816

17. Takeda N, Sato G, Matsuda K, Ito J, Omori K, Ito Y, Kitahara T, Koizuka I, Shojaku H, Suzuki M, Doi K, Murofushi T, Yamashita H (2023) Effects of high-dose betahistidine on intractable dizziness in patients with uncompensated unilateral vestibulopathy. Auris Nasus Larynx 51(2):401-405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anl.2023. 08.009

18. Murdin L, Hussain K, Schilder AG (2016) Betahistidine for symptoms of vertigo. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2016(6):CD010696. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD010696.pub2

19. Sutton L, Ghedia R, Harcourt J (2023) Betahistidine prescribing practices in England: an analysis of prescribing and national spending pre- and post-BEMED Trial. Otol Neurotol 44(6):e406-e411. https://doi.org/10.1097/MAO.00000000000 003890

20. de Germay S, Conte C, Micallef J, Bouquet E, Chouchana L, Lafaurie M, Pariente A (2023) Performing pharmacoepidemiological studies using the French health insurance data warehouse (SNDS): how to translate guidelines into practice. Therapie. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.therap.2023.01.010

21. Kotimaki J, Sorri M, Aantaa E, Nuutinen J (1999) Prevalence of Meniere disease in Finland. Laryngoscope 109(5):748-753

22. Tyrrell JS, Whinney DJ, Ukoumunne OC, Fleming LE, Osborne NJ (2014) Prevalence, associated factors, and comorbid conditions for Meniere's disease. Ear Hear 35(4):e162-e169. https://doi.org/ 10.1097/AUD.0000000000000041

23. Wladislavosky-Waserman P, Facer GW, Mokri B, Kurland LT (1984) Meniere's disease: a 30-year epidemiologic and clinical study in Rochester, Mn, 1951-1980. Laryngoscope 94(8):1098-1102

24. Grill E, Strupp M, Muller M, Jahn K (2014) Health services utilization of patients with vertigo in primary care: a retrospective cohort study. J Neurol 261(8):1492-1498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-014-7367-y

25. Nevoux J, Franco-Vidal V, Bouccara D, Parietti-Winkler C, Uziel A, Chays A, Dubernard X, Couloigner V, Darrouzet V, Mom T (2017) Diagnostic and therapeutic strategy in Menière's disease. Guidelines of the French Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Society (SFORL). Eur Ann Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Dis 134(6):441-444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2016.12.003

26. Antons M, Lindner M, Eilles E, Günther L, Delker A, Branner C, Krämer A, Beck R, Oos R, Wuehr M, Ziegler S, Strupp M, Zwergal A (2023) Dose- and application route-dependent effects of betahistidine on behavioral recovery and neuroplasticity after acute unilateral labyrinthectomy in rats. Front Neurol 14:1175481. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1175481

27. Strupp M, Churchill GC, Naumann I, Mansmann U, Al Tawil A, Golentsova A, Goldschagg N (2023) Examination of betahistidine bioavailability in combination with the monoamine oxidase B inhibitor, selegiline, in humans-a non-randomized, single-sequence, two-period titration, open label single-center phase 1 study (PK-BEST). Front Neurol 14:1271640. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2023.1271640

28. Wissenschaftliches Institut der AOK. PharmaAnalyst. https:// www.wido.de/publikationen-produkte/analytik/pharmaanalyst/.