Economic analysis of dyspepsia.
A variety of organic and non-organic diseases can present with symptoms of dyspepsia or upper abdominal pain, and a large diagnostic and therapeutic armamentarium is available to manage symptoms of dyspepsia. How extensively should a diagnostic search be conducted; and where does the best path run through the maze of potential combinations of tests and therapies? Physicians have hoped that economic and medical decision analyses would help them to find the most cost-effective and most efficacious means to deal with dyspepsia. Because of the large variety of potential diagnoses, diagnostic procedures and therapeutic means, however, it is very doubtful that a single most effective or least expensive strategy can ever be developed to apply to every patient with dyspepsia. Following the lines of common medical sense is probably more cost-effective than observing a rigid regimen derived from an economical analysis.
Sonnenberg
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Gastroenterology Section, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108, USA.
D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans