title: A proposed model for economic evaluations of major depressive disorder.
abstract: In countries like UK and Australia, the comparability of model-based analyses is an essential aspect of reimbursement decisions for new pharmaceuticals, medical services and technologies. Within disease areas, the use of models with alternative structures, type of modelling techniques and/or data sources for common parameters reduces the comparability of evaluations of alternative technologies for the same condition. The aim of this paper is to propose a decision analytic model to evaluate long-term costs and benefits of alternative management options in patients with depression. The structure of the proposed model is based on the natural history of depression and includes clinical events that are important from both clinical and economic perspectives. Considering its greater flexibility with respect to handling time, discrete event simulation (DES) is an appropriate simulation platform for modelling studies of depression. We argue that the proposed model can be used as a reference model in model-based studies of depression improving the quality and comparability of studies.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Public Health, The University of Adelaide, Level 3, 122 Frome Street, Mail Drop 207, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. hossein.hajialiafzali@adelaide.edu.au
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haji Ali Afzali
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Karnon
authors.forename: Jodi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gray
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000191:economics; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D006296:Health Services / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D018803:Models, Economic; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents