The Economic Impact of Schizophrenia in Romanian Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

The most frequent diagnoses were paranoid schizophrenia (388 patients) and undifferentiated schizophrenia (255 patients). All other ICD-10 diagnostic codes were used on 32 patients (Fig. 3).Patients were admitted for an average number of 17.44 days/patient (95% CI ± 0.03), generating an average cost of 7582 RON/patient (95% CI ± 428), (1660 EUR* (95% CI ± 93)).Data analysis by gender (Table 1) showed us that men had a significantly higher number of hospitalization days than women (p=0.01), which lead to a significantly higher cost of hospitalization for male patients (p=0.01). Our group generated a total health care cost of 5.1M RON (1.1 M EUR*). CONCLUSIONSSchizophrenia has a major economic impact, especially in male patients. Adequate treatments in out-patient clinics and better therapeutic adherence could lead to a decrease of economical burden, to an increased cost-efficiency rate and, finally, to a better patient care.