An economic evaluation of schizophrenia--1991

In 1991, the costs for schizophrenia, which has a lifetime prevalence of 1.5% among adult Americans, totaled $65 billion. Costs were broken down into their direct and indirect components. Direct costs, which totaled $19 billion dollars, consisted of treatment-related expenditures such as those for inpatients and outpatients, as well as nontreatment-related expenditures such as those for the criminal justice system used by individuals with schizophrenia. The direct costs were fairly similar to those of other recent estimates of the cost of schizophrenia. Indirect costs, which were $46 billion dollars, included the lost productivity of both wage earners ($24 billion) and homemakers ($4.5 billion), individuals who were in institutions ($4.5 billion) or who had committed suicide ($7 billion), and caregivers who took care of schizophrenic family members ($7 billion). Our method for calculating the indirect costs was slightly different than methods used in prior studies, which may account for our estimates being higher. The method for determining each expenditure is provided, and the implications of these staggering costs are discussed.