COSTS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA IN THE NETHERLANDS

This study tries to identify and estimate the health care costs of sch izophrenia in The Netherlands and to determine in a broader sense the total costs of schizophrenia for society in terms of productivity loss caused by absence from work and early retirement. The study can be de scribed as a ''cost-of-illness'' study based on prevalence data. It sh ows that in The Netherlands about 2 percent of the total health care b udget is spent on the treatment of schizophrenia patients. This figure is rather high, since the prevalence rate of schizophrenia in The Net herlands is only 0.6 percent. The indirect costs-production lost becau se of absence from work, disability, and early death-were very low, bu t these costs are underestimated because schizophrenia patients are un likely to become active participants in the labor force. It is also di fficult to identify people who have died of schizophrenia in national data because schizophrenia in itself is not lethal, but individuals wi th schizophrenia may die because of suicide or violent death.