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Economics and Schizophrenia: The Real Cost

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Linda M. Davies  and
Michael F. Drummond
Linda M. Davies*
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Economics, University of York
Michael F. Drummond
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Economics, University of York
*
Linda Davies, Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York YO1 5DD
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Abstract

The total direct cost of treating schizophrenia in the UK is £397 million, or 1.6% of the total health care budget. Hospital-based and community-based residential care accounts for nearly three-quarters of these costs, while drugs account for only 5%. A conservative estimate of the indirect annual costs of lost production is in the region of £1.7 billion. The heterogeneity of the disease and its outcome means that average treatment costs per person with schizophrenia should be treated with caution; 97% of direct costs are incurred by less than half the patients. Therefore, treatments which reduce the dependence and disability of those most severely affected by schizophrenia are likely to have a large effect on the total cost of the disease to society and may therefore be cost-effective, even though they appear expensive initially.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 165 , Issue S25: New Standards in the Management and Understanding of Schizophrenia , November 1994 , pp. 18 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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