[Economic impact of bipolar mood disorders]

The implementation of spending control policies to combat rising healthcare costs and public health department deficits in the industrialised countries poses the problem of how to maintain high standards of treatment and ensure quality of life for patients. Only a proper medico-economic evaluation of the various therapeutic strategies available will allow the two sides of this equation to be reconciled; one wonders in fact whether these two sides are indeed contradictory. This is particularly true as regards the treatment of mental illnesses. Because of their chronic status, together with inherent problems of diagnosis and management, bipolar disorders appear at first sight to present a marked impact in economic terms, and are thus highly problematic for health authorities. Budgetary control is far more complex than simple management of scarce resources, since the least expensive therapies are not necessarily the most cost-effective. Nevertheless, data allowing accurate assessment of the costs related to these disorders are rare or non-existent. Furthermore, the impact of a given treatment for bipolar disorders on the quality of life of the patient may have a direct economic bearing if one takes account of additional drug consumption and further social deficit resulting from unsuccessful therapy, as well as of social and family problems related to this type of disorder.