A767 49-89% of the total annual costs associated with schizophrenia. ConClusions: Schizophrenia imposes a substantial economic burden on society mainly driven by high indirect costs. The cost estimates varied due to methodology differences and costs included. The information of disease burden associated with schizophrenia is crucial to enable informed decision-making in allocating health care resources.

BackgroundSchizophrenia is one of the top 25 leading causes of disability worldwide in 2013. Despite its low prevalence, its health, social, and economic burden has been tremendous, not only for patients but also for families, caregivers, and the wider society. The magnitude of disease burden investigated in an economic burden study is an important source to policymakers in decision making. This study aims to systematically identify studies focusing on the economic burden of schizophrenia, describe the methods and data sources used, and summarize the findings of economic burden of schizophrenia.MethodsA systematic review was performed for economic burden studies in schizophrenia using four electronic databases (Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and EconLit) from inception to August 31, 2014.ResultsA total of 56 articles were included in this review. More than 80% of the studies were conducted in high-income countries. Most studies had undertaken a retrospective- and prevalence-based study design. The bottom-up approach was commonly employed to determine cost, while human capital method was used for indirect cost estimation. Database and literature were the most commonly used data sources in cost estimation in high-income countries, while chart review and interview were the main data sources in low and middle-income countries. Annual costs for the schizophrenia population in the country ranged from US$94 million to US$102 billion. Indirect costs contributed to 50%–85% of the total costs associated with schizophrenia. The economic burden of schizophrenia was estimated to range from 0.02% to 1.65% of the gross domestic product.ConclusionThe enormous economic burden in schizophrenia is suggestive of the inadequate provision of health care services to these patients. An informed decision is achievable with the increasing recognition among public and policymakers that schizophrenia is burdensome. This results in better resource allocation and the development of policy-oriented research for this highly disabling yet under-recognized mental health disease.

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Outpatient FLQ use, ostensibly for community-acquired pneumonia, is not uncommon among patients with pulmonary TB, especially older patients. Single FLQ prescriptions were not associated with FLQ-resistant M. tuberculosis, whereas multiple FLQ prescriptions were associated with FLQ resistance.

A modular interdisciplinary platform was developed to investigate the economic impact of oseltamivir treatment by dosage regimen under simulated influenza pandemic scenarios. METHODSThe pharmacology module consisted of a pharmacokinetic distribution of oseltamivir carboxylate daily area under the concentration-time curve at steady state (simulated for 75 mg and 150 mg twice daily regimens for 5 days) and a pharmacodynamic distribution of viral shedding duration obtained from phase II influenza inoculation data. The epidemiological module comprised a susceptible, exposed, infected, recovered (SEIR) model to which drug effect on the basic reproductive number (R 0 ), a measure of transmissibility, was linked by reduction of viral shedding duration. The number of infected patients per population of 100 000 susceptible individuals was simulated for a series of pandemic scenarios, varying oseltamivir dose, R 0 (1.9 vs. 2.7), and drug uptake (25%, 50%, and 80%). The number of infected patients for each scenario was entered into the health economics module, a decision analytic model populated with branch probabilities, disease utility, costs of hospitalized patients developing complications, and case-fatality rates. Change in quality-adjusted life years was determined relative to base case. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology RESULTSOseltamivir 75 mg relative to no treatment reduced the median number of infected patients, increased change in quality-adjusted life years by deaths averted, and was cost-saving under all scenarios; 150 mg relative to 75 mg was not cost effective in low transmissibility scenarios but was cost saving in high transmissibility scenarios. CONCLUSIONThis methodological study demonstrates proof of concept that the disciplines of pharmacology, disease epidemiology and health economics can be linked in a single quantitative framework. WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT• To date, modelling of influenza has been conducted in discrete discipline areas.• The discrete pharmacology, epidemiology and health economic models are not linked and make assumptions about the adjacent disciplines that are inappropriate.• There are no epidemiological or health economic models which have taken into account between subject variability in the pharmacology of influenza treatments. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS• This study provides the first integrated interdisciplinary framework to understand the cost-utility of antiviral therapy under various influenza pandemic scenarios linking drug pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, epidemiological and health economics endpoints. • This quantitative framework was able to show that oseltamivir reduced the median number of infected individuals, increased quality-adjusted life years by deaths averted, and was cost-saving under most pandemic scenarios.• Given the growing need to justify pricing of medicines to society and payer, the methodology of interdisciplinary pharmacometrics can be applied across all disease areas where the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, clinical or epidemi...