Is there a higher-than-average increase of costs of care for schizophrenicpatients?

Empirical data on costs of ca re for chronically mentally ill patients in G ermany a re rare. There is a lack of cross-sectional studies as well as of any analysis of the long-term course of mental health care costs. This stud y combines data from two cost-studies on patients with schizophrenia, condu cted in the same catchment area at an interval of 15 years, to draw conclus ions about the long-term course of these costs. The direct costs of compreh ensive community based mental health care had increased by 77.0%, during 15 years, while the costs of a permanents stay in a long-term ward of a psych iatric hospital had increased by 78.5% in the same period. This increase wa s 27 and 28.5 per cent higher than the general rise in cost of living in Ge rmany during the interval between the two studies. This higher-than-average increase in mental health care costs was accompanied by a much higher cost -effectiveness. Thus, this rise of costs must be seen as a consequence of t he great deficits and the resulting basic improvement of care for chronical ly mentally ill patients in Germany,which was demanded by an expert-commiss ion of the government in the mid-seventies.