The economic impact of schizophrenia
Rice, D.P.
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 60(Suppl): 4-6; Discussion 28-30
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0160-6689 PMID: 10037163 Document Number: 502331
Although schizophrenia afflicts 1.1% of the U.S. population, it imposes a disproportionately large economic burden due to expenditures for hospitalization, treatment and rehabilitation, and lost productivity. Cost-of-illness studies, using a variety of methodologies to calculate direct and indirect costs, have estimated that in 1990 the total economic burden of schizophrenia was dollar sign32.5 billion. Of this total, dollar sign17.3 billion was attributable to direct medical costs. By comparison, in the same year the total and direct medical costs for anxiety disorders, which are more than 10 times more prevalent than schizophrenia, were dollar sign46.6 billion and dollar sign10.7 billion, respectively. For affective disorders, almost 10 times more prevalent than schizophrenia, the total and direct costs were dollar sign30.4 billion and dollar sign19.2 billion, respectively. Effective treatments used early in the course of schizophrenia can help reduce the costs associated with this illness.