Pharmacoeconomic aspects of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is one of the most serious psychiatric illnesses belonging to the group of non-affective psychoses. It is characterized by distortions of thought, perception, emotions and behavior. Twenty-four million people around the world suffer from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a chronic illness connected to significant expenses which are imposed on both the health system, extended social community and family, as well. Cost of illness studies of schizophrenia conducted around the world show wide range of material resources that countries set aside from their health budgets in order to cure schizophrenia. They range from 1.6% to 2.5%.International cost of illness studies came to the conclusion that the costs of this disease are high, depending on the health system and location and that intangible costs per se already justify investments in research and development of new treatments. Majority of published papers suggest that atypical antipsychotics have better cost-effectiveness profile in comparison to the first generation of antipsychotics. Olanzapine, clozapine and risperidone are atypical antipsychotics generally found to be most cost-effective in treating schizophrenia.