title: Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder vs depression have comparable health care costs: a retrospective claims analysis of Florida Medicaid enrollees.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The health care burden of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is relatively unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare the health care burden of patients with OCD vs depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective claims analysis compared the 2-year median per-patient health care claims and costs for Florida Medicaid adult enrollees (1997 to 2006) newly diagnosed with "pure OCD" (P-OCD; OCD without comorbid major depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, organic mental disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, nonpsychotic brain damage, developmental delay, or mental retardation) with matched patients newly diagnosed with "pure depression" (P-D; similar to P-OCD but excluding OCD instead of depression).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty-five newly diagnosed P-OCD patients were matched with 14,906 P-D patients. Although median per-patient total health care costs were comparable across groups, patients with P-D incurred significantly higher median outpatient medical costs ($1,928 vs $363, P = .003), while those with P-OCD incurred almost three-fold greater psychiatric costs ($2,028 vs $759, P < .0001). The latter was due primarily to significantly higher costs of psychotropic medications among those with P-OCD ($4,307 vs $2,317, P = .0006) rather than to psychiatric outpatient care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with P-D and P-OCD carry a similar burden in overall health care costs. However, the burden of those with P-D was largely attributable to outpatient medical costs while that of those with P-OCD was due to higher costs of psychotropic medications.
authors.affiliation: BioMedEcon, LLC, Moss Beach, CA, USA. chankin@biomedecon.com
authors.forename: Cheryl S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Hankin
authors.forename: Lorrin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Koran
authors.forename: David V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Sheehan
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hollander
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Culpepper
authors.forename: Donald W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Knispel
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Darin D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Dougherty
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bronstone
authors.forename: Zhaohui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000191:economics*; D016527:Drug Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005431:Florida; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000191:economics*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000191:economics; D044469:Racial Groups; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs