Health economics in psychiatric nursing.

The potential benefits to psychiatric nursing of the new science of health economics are explored in this article, which stems from more extensive research carried out by the authors. It is suggested that an analysis of the relationship between costs and clinical outcomes of community psychiatric nursing interventions will enable an objective ratification of the costs and benefits of treatment to emerge. The new discipline must be incorporated into evaluative research processes to allow psychiatric nursing to have an influence over future changes in health care provision.