OBJECTIVE: To estimate resource utilisation and direct costs of treatment for @entity1 with @entity161 in Italian Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs). DESIGN: Multicentre, retrospective observational study. CMHCs recruited all @entity1 who attended a follow-up consultation during the period September to December 1998. At enrollment, psychiatrists completed a questionnaire on consumption of resources in the 2 months before recruitment. SETTING: 14 CMHCs. PERSPECTIVE: Italian National Health Service (INHS). @entity1 : 702 @entity1 with a diagnosis of @entity161 or other @entity914 , defined according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental @entity74 . These @entity1 had been followed by the CMHCs for at least 2 years and attended a follow-up consultation either during the period September to December 1998 or on randomly selected days during this period. @entity1 were classified into seven groups according to their diagnosis. RESULTS: The mean direct cost of @entity1 with @entity161 in the 2-month observation period was 2,234,475 Italian lire [L] (1154.01 @entity7634 ; EUR); direct costs ranged from L.1,545,818 to L.2,775,658 (EUR798.35 to EUR1433.51) by prognostic group. There was wide variability for prognostic groups in the impact of most cost components on total cost. Admissions accounted for between 11.4 and 56.3% of the total cost, daycare centre days for between 11.3 and 35.5%, home visits for 7.8 to 16.4%, and day-hospital days for 5.4 to 32.8%. Antipsychotics and anxiolytics were the most prescribed drugs and also the most costly. CONCLUSION: Despite the limitations of the study related to the short period considered, we believe this study offers some interesting information on the burden of @entity161 , a disease for which its cost has received limited attention so far in Italy.

Direct costs of XXXX in Italian community psychiatric services.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['Patients', 'patients', 'PATIENTS'] @entity914 :: ('MESH:D011618', 'Disease') :: ['psychotic disorders'] @entity161 :: ('MESH:D012559', 'Disease') :: ['schizophrenia'] @entity74 :: ('MESH:D030342', 'Disease') :: ['Disorders-fourth edition'] @entity7634 :: ('9319', 'Species') :: ['Euro']
@entity161 :: (MESH:D012559,Disease) :: ['schizophrenia']
