title: Economic evaluation in the field of mental health: conceptual basis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Technological advances in medicine have given rise to a dilemma concerning the use of new health technologies in a context of limited financial resources. In the field of psychiatry, health economic evaluation is a recent method that can assist in choosing interventions with different cost and/or effectiveness for specific populations or conditions. This article introduces clinicians to the fundamental concepts required for critical assessment of health economic evaluations.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors conducted a review with systematic methods to assess the essential theoretical framework of health economic evaluation and mental health in Brazil through textbooks and studies indexed in the PubMed, Cochrane Central, LILACS, NHS CRD, and REBRATS databases. A total of 334 studies were found using the specified terms (MeSH - Mental Health AND Economic, Medical) and filters (Brazil AND Humans); however, only five Brazilian economic evaluations were found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Economic evaluation studies are growing exponentially in the medical literature. Publications focusing on health economics as applied to psychiatry are increasingly common, but Brazilian data are still very incipient. In a country where financial resources are so scarce, economic analyses are necessary to ensure better use of public resources and wider population access to effective health technologies.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. afbslima@gmail.com
authors.forename: Ana Flávia Barros da Silva
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Luciane Nascimento
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: Carisi Anne
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Polanczyk
authors.forename: Carlos Renato Moreira
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Maia
mesh_terms: D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000191:economics*; D001938:Brazil; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy; D008603:Mental Health / Q000191:economics*; D011788:Quality of Life