ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF MENTAL-HEALTH-CARE INTERVENTIONS - A REVIEW

Due to rising costs, the economic aspects of the mental health care se ctor are receiving increasing attention. This article scrutinizes 91 p ublished studies in the field of mental health care, applying methodol ogical criteria drawn from epidemiology and economics. The purpose of this study is to provide some insight into the quality of economic eva luation in the held of mental health care. The article shows that few good full economic evaluations studies have been undertaken in the dom ain of mental health care. One reason for this could be that the measu rement of effectiveness in mental health care is complicated because o f the known difficulties with the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis and the lack of consensus about the etiology and appropriate treatmen t for many psychiatric illnesses. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.