Journal of Medical Economics

Improving quality in economic evaluations of the management of schizophrenia

Abstract
Amongst major mental illnesses, schizophrenia remains the most costly. As the volume of economic studies of health care increases, methods for reviewing their quality are assuming greater importance. The authors present a review of economic evaluations in schizophrenia using recent guidelines and checklist developed by the British Medical Journal Economic Evaluation Working Party. Thirty studies were included. These were of variable quality, as demonstrated with positive scores ranging from 43 to 88 per cent of checklist items. Few used relevant analytical techniques such as discounting costs and sensitivity analysis. Other major areas of improvement included greater clarity in the estimation of unit costs and better description of casemix. Quantifying methodological quality by using checklist scores may be useful for comparative purposes, but caution must be applied to ensure similar studies are compared.