The cost of mood disorders

Mood disorders place substantial clinical, social and economic burdens on individuals with the disorders, as well as on their families and wider society. At the same time, the scarcity of healthcare resources necessitates the efficiency of alternative treatments to be examined. Economic evaluations of the seemingly expensive SSRIs have tended to suggest that they are cost-effective compared with tricyclics due to better clinical outcomes and reduced hospitalizations. However, a third generation of antidepressants may bring new cost concerns. The high cost of psychological therapies may mean that they are only cost-effective for particular sub-groups of patients, as suggested by recent NICE guidelines.