Some aspects of family interventions in schizophrenia. II: Financial considerations.
The direct costs to the mental health services for patients who participated in a trial of a behavioural family intervention to reduce schizophrenic relapse were estimated. Comparisons were made between two patient groups from households of high expressed emotion (HEE): one group received a nine-month family intervention (HEE Intervention) and the other group routine treatment (HEE Control). A third group consisted of patients from low-EE households (LEE Control). The significant decrease in relapse rates in the HEE Intervention group compared with the HEE Control group has previously been reported; the analysis of costs indicates that any increase in costs due to the family intervention is outweighed by a decrease in usage of the established mental health services. The intervention resulted in a decrease of 27% in mean cost per patient.
Tarrier
N
N
Department of Psychology, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Lowson
K
K
Barrowclough
C
C
D000328:Adult; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000191:economics; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics; D003363:Cost Control / Q000639:trends; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology