[Clinico-economic study of schizophrenia: methodology and comparative analysis of expenditures in the hospital and ambulatory care networks].

The paper is concerned with part of the results of an analysis of expenditures for the treatment of schizophrenic patients. The task of the present fragment was to delineate ways of optimizing the functioning of the psychiatric assistance services. Research methods including clinico-economic, statistic, mathematic and epidemiological approaches are described in detail. Based on an examination of the representative group of schizophrenic patients (n-386) of one of the psychoneurological dispensaries of Moscow, it has been established that the main "direct" (793.8 rubels per patient/year on the average) and "indirect" (3520.94 rubels per patient/year on the average) expenditures are connected with expensive inpatient treatment and disability allowance payments. It is suggested that redistribution of investments with a purpose of eliminating economic unbalance between different psychiatric services (hospital and ambulatory) will contribute to optimizing their functioning and enable the efficacy of their work to be enhanced.