Pharmacoeconomics Of Schizophrenia –A comparison of Allopathy and Alternate therapy

Pharmacoeconomics Of Schizophrenia –A comparison of Allopathy and Alternate therapy Background: Schizophrenia is well known not only for morbidity but also for its economic burden. Patient has to remain on treatment lifelong. The prolonged treatment includes direct cost towards consultation, Allopathic medication, investigational charges; Indirect cost like traveling cost ,work loss by both patients & care giver, the cost of alternative therapy like Ayurveda, Homeopathy& treatment from Faith Healers.. Aims and objectives---- To find out the average cost of therapy (Direct & Indirect) and compare among the different treatment modalities. Method: A cross sectional, observational study was conducted from December 2012 to November 2013 in a tertiary teaching hospital in central India on 100 patients as per inclusion criteria. A structured questioner was filled for assessing direct and indirect cost. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Direct cost included medication cost and was Rs 2370.1±1050.1per patient for 6 month. Average Indirect cost include travelling cost Rs.601.1±375.0,work loss by patient Rs 15292.2±10308.0,work loss by care giver Rs14339.4±8218.1.Indirect cost for 6 month also include alternative treatment cost like on faith healer and was Rs.11080.41± 19983.48, Ayurveda was Rs. 12388.24±17718.28, Homeopathy was Rs. 8000. So the average direct cost was 7.27% (Rs 2730) of total cost Rs 32602.70.when on allopathic, combined treatment with Homeopathy, Faith Healer & Ayurveda increased cost by 19%, 25.36%, 27.5%, respectively. Conclusion: This shows that the Direct cost was less than indirect cost. And cost of alternative treatment significantly add to Pharmacoeconomics burden in schizophrenia.