A. George Awad (Department of Psychiatry and the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Humber River Regional Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Lakshmi N.P. Voruganti (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a disabling, chronic psychiatric disorder that poses numerous challenges in its management and consequences. It extols a significant cost to the patient in terms of personal suffering, on the caregiver as a result of the shift of burden of care from hospital to families, and on society at large in terms of significant direct and indirect costs that include frequent hospitalizations and the need for long-term psychosocial and economic support, as well as life-time lost productivity. The early conceptualization of An extensive literature concerning family interventions in schizophrenia has demonstrated the positive impact of various family interventions in improving family environment, reducing relapse and easing the burden of care. Although the evidence of such positive impact of family interventions in schizophrenia is well documented, such interventions are neither widely used nor appropriately integrated in care plans, and are frequently underfunded. Although the cost of caregiving is considered to be significant, there are no reliable estimates of the costs associated with such care. The majority of available literature categorized the cost of burden of care among the indirect costs of schizophrenia in general. In recent years, attempts to compare the costs of caregiving in several countries have been reported in the evolving literature on this topic. In achieving a balance between the patients Although research efforts have been expanded in the last 3 decades, an urgent need exists for enhancing such efforts, particularly in the development and evaluation of effective family interventions strategies. There is also a need for continued improvement in the delivery of psychiatric services to the severely psychiatrically ill and their families. As there is a lack of reliable cost information about the family burden of care specific to schizophrenia, there is an urgent need to develop reliable approaches that can generate data that can inform in policy making and organization of services.
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Article provided by Wolters Kluwer Health | Adis in its journal PharmacoEconomics.
Volume (Year): 26 (2008) Issue (Month): 2 () Pages: 149-162 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML,
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