Pharmacoeconomic considerations when evaluating treatment options for major depressive disorder

The goal of this paper is to increase the psychiatrist's awareness of issues and methods in pharmacoeconomics with the hope that this will lead to greater physician involvement in the ongoing cost-management debates. This paper will first examine the underlying dynamics of health economics as they relate to the treatment of major depressive disorder. It will then discuss cost-benefit factors in antidepressant pharmacotherapy with special focus on the economic implications of clinically relevant differences among antidepressant drug classes. The paper ends with a review of methods for the economic analysis of drug therapies and a discussion of research needs in this area.