ECONOMICS AND SCHIZOPHRENIA - THE REAL COST

The total direct cost of treating schizophrenia in the UK is pound 397 million, or 1.64% of the total health care budget. Hospital-based and community-based residential care accounts for nearly three-quarters o f these costs, while drugs account for only 5%. A conservative estimat e of the indirect annual costs of lost production is in the region of pound 1.7 billion. The heterogeneity of the disease and its outcome me ans 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 li kely to have a large effect on the total cost of the disease to societ y and may therefore be cost-effective, even though they appear expensi ve initially.