Abstract :
Mental disorders constitute a wide spectrum ranging from sub-clinical states to very severe forms of disorders. Mental health problems can attain the disorder/disease/syndrome level, which are usually considered easy to recognize, define, diagnose and treat. To study the cost effectiveness of antidepressant drugs in a tertiary care teaching hospital of rural India and various factors associated with it. A cross sectional study was performed and the prescriptions were analyzed. The data from OPD was studied in a structured format. Drugs was categorized as per the pharmacological classification. The drugs were evaluated for their pharmacoeconomics. In an extensive study of 2months, 250 cases of psychiatric opd were evaluated. Depression (76%) was the most prevalent psychiatric ailment followed by anxiety (13%) and schizophrenia (11%). The prevalent age group was 21-40 years (38.4%). Females (71.54%) had the majority as compared to males (28.46%). Fluoxetine was the most prescribed antidepressant (45%). 76% of the patients were on monotherapy. Escitalopram-Clonazepam(45%) was the most frequently prescribed fixed dose combination. Average cost of therapy was calculated. Paroxetine(Rs 221) had maximum medication cost while Imipramine(Rs 21) had minimum medication cost.
Keyword :
Pharmacoeconomics, Antidepressants, Cost-effectiveness