Quality of life and health costs: The feasibility of cost-utility analysis in schizophrenia

Abstract

The high cost of management in schizophrenia, which includes direct and indirect costs, has triggered a good deal of interest in pharmacoeconomics of schizophrenia. The escalating cost of healthcare has led to capping of health services, including mental and psychiatric health. The recent introduction of second-generation antipsychotics has ignited an extensive debate about whether the benefits of such new and expensive medications justify the high acquisition costs. At the center of the pharmacoeconomics debates, health-related quality of life emerged as the optimum and most desirable outcome in the management of schizophrenia. One of the approaches proposed for cost-effectiveness studies capitalized on utility analysis concepts, which incorporates cost and quality of life. This chapter describes our feasibility study of applying utility concepts to schizophrenia, highlighting its merits and limitations.