Side effects, dropouts from treatment and cost consequences.

Estimating the cost of treatment of depression has to take into account the quantifiable direct costs of medication, and hospital and community care, and the indirect costs such as loss of productivity, unemployment, costs of social support, etc. It also has to take into account the intangible costs to the depressed individual which are more difficult to quantify. Depression is a long-term illness and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality which contribute substantially to the indirect costs of the illness. Successful treatment can be expected to reduce the overall costs of depression to the individual and to society at large. Compliance with treatment is an essential factor in the successful treatment of depression. Meta-analyses of published papers have indicated that significantly more patients discontinue treatment with tricyclic antidepressants due to side effects than with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and therefore better tolerated antidepressants should be the first choice of treatment. Pharmacoeconomic studies that take account of the failure of treatment represented by the discontinuations due to side effects show that an apparently cheaper antidepressant like imipramine may turn out to be more expensive than the better tolerated antidepressants.