Imperial College London, Centre for Mental Health Claybrook Centre, Charing Cross Hospital, London, United Kingdom.
J Affect Disord. 2011 Oct;133(3):450-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2011.06.016. Epub 2011 Jul 6.
Bipolar disorder is a common illness characterized by recurrent episodes of pathological disturbances of mood. The aim of this study was to estimate the annual cost associated with bipolar disorder to the UK healthcare system (National Health Service).
A retrospective observational study was conducted. Primary care resource use was estimated using the IMS Disease Analyzer, a nationally representative sample of general practitioner (GP) practices. Two sources of data from the NHS Information Centre were used to assess resource use in secondary care and in outpatient and community mental health. The number of bed days and day attendances for patients hospitalized was obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). This was supplemented with Mental Health Minimum Dataset (MHMDS) to quantify outpatient and community mental health face-to-face contacts. Resource use was examined between 01 April 2007 and 31 March 2008.
The annual NHS cost of bipolar disorder was estimated to be £ 342 million at 2009/2010 prices. Hospitalizations accounted for 60%, outpatient and community mental health 26.7%, and medication in primary care 7.4% of the overall direct costs of care.
This study may be confounded by the absence of a control group. This study was limited to an assessment of direct healthcare costs only, not the wider societal cost of bipolar disorder.
The direct medical cost of managing bipolar disorder in the UK healthcare system is considerable. Therapeutic strategies that optimize community-based management, prevention of recurrence and hospitalization could reduce the economic burden of this illness.
双相情感障碍是一种常见疾病，其特征是反复发作的病理性情绪紊乱。本研究旨在评估英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）治疗双相情感障碍的年度成本。
采用回顾性观察研究。使用 IMS Disease Analyzer 估算初级保健资源的使用情况，这是一个具有全国代表性的全科医生（GP）实践样本。使用 NHS 信息中心的两个数据源来评估二级保健、门诊和社区心理健康方面的资源使用情况。从医院入院统计数据（HES）中获得患者住院的床位日和日间就诊次数。这一数据通过心理健康最小数据集（MHMDS）进行补充，以量化门诊和社区心理健康的面对面接触次数。资源使用情况的评估时间为 2007 年 4 月 1 日至 2008 年 3 月 31 日。
根据 2009/2010 年的价格，预计 NHS 治疗双相情感障碍的年度费用为 3.42 亿英镑。住院治疗占总直接医疗费用的 60%，门诊和社区心理健康治疗占 26.7%，初级保健药物治疗占 7.4%。
本研究可能受到缺乏对照组的影响。本研究仅限于直接医疗成本评估，未考虑双相情感障碍的更广泛的社会成本。
在英国国家医疗服务体系中，管理双相情感障碍的直接医疗成本相当可观。优化基于社区的管理、预防复发和住院治疗的治疗策略可能会减轻这种疾病的经济负担。
