A calm look at cost of drugs in psychiatric practice

Cost consideration has special relevance in psychiatric practice, where the drug treatment has to be continued for long duration. On evaluating, the cost of different brand names, of the same generic drug using CIMS and MIMS (India, 1991), it was found that Cost Range and Cost Ratio varies considerably. The Cost Ratio is more than 3 for Tab. Thioridazone 100 mg and Cap. Daxepin 75 mg. Since, the superiority of any costlier brand over the others has never been reported, and keeping in view the financial aspect of prescribing the cheapest of the brand available should be prescribed, whenever possible.