Cost of Illness of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Economic evaluation provides a methodology that allows policy makers, managers and clinicians to
make choices between differing treatments, settings and illnesses in order to facilitate the judicious use
of scarce resources. There are several methods of economic evaluation, cost of illness being one of
them. Schizophrenia imposes huge economic impact on individuals, families, and communities. This
paper attempts to review the issues related to carrying out cost of illness studies, the findings of cost of
illness studies done for schizophrenia from various countries and various sociodemographic and illness
factors which influence cost of illness of schizophrenia.
Key words: Schizophrenia, Cost of illness (COI), direct cost, indirect cost